Warwick, RI Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

8 of the zoning ordinance defines 'adult entertainment' to cover any commercial establishment that regularly shows films, videos, or live performances depicting specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, as well as any bookstore or retail establishment where more than 25 percent of in-store inventory consists of sexually oriented books, films, or paraphernalia. Table 1, Use Regulations lists this use as Use Code 50X and marks it 'No' (prohibited) in every zoning district except General Industrial (GI), where it is allowed only with a special use permit from the zoning board of review under Subsection 906.

Footnote (12) attached to that table entry adds a mandatory spacing requirement: the use must maintain a setback of 200 feet from all residence districts and school buildings, on top of the GI district's own dimensional setbacks under Table 2B. Because GI is Warwick's most restrictive industrial zone and sits away from the city's residential and commercial corridors, the practical effect is that a sexually oriented business has almost nowhere in the city where it can legally locate without first clearing the special use permit process, which requires a public hearing before the zoning board and site plan review for compliance with the 200-foot buffer. An applicant that cannot document that buffer distance from every residence district and school building boundary will not receive the permit.