Worcester County, MD Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Zoning decides where an adult business can locate. Under § ZS 1-213(c)(3), adult entertainment businesses are a special exception use in the I-2 Heavy Industrial District, reviewed under § ZS 1-116(c). The minimum lot is forty thousand square feet with one hundred feet of lot width, a fifty-foot front yard, twenty-foot side yards and a twenty-foot rear yard, subject to § ZS 1-325.

Spacing is measured from the closest portion of the building. It cannot be within one thousand two hundred feet of the boundary of a parcel containing a school, place of worship, public library, park or recreation facility, day care center, day care home or group home. It cannot be within six hundred feet of an arterial highway or the boundary of a parcel in an E, V, R or RP district; next to a residence in an A District the test becomes three hundred feet from the parcel boundary or, failing that, six hundred feet from the closest residential building. It must also stay one thousand two hundred feet from any other adult-oriented business and one thousand two hundred feet from any building where alcoholic beverages are sold for on-premises consumption. Exterior signs or depictions visible to the public that show adult material are prohibited. The owner or operator applies to the Department with a site plan showing compliance with § PH 1-109, and spacing is judged as of the date of that submittal.

Operating rules sit in § PH 1-109, added 12-18-2007 by Bill No. 07-5. A business is adult-oriented when a significant amount of it is adult entertainment or material, defined as at least twenty percent of stock, usable floor area or gross revenue. Each building needs a management station with direct sight of every public area except restrooms, interior lighting of at least five footcandles at floor level, exterior lighting of not less than two footcandles, and video surveillance of the exterior. Viewing booths cannot have curtains or doors. No one under the age of eighteen years is allowed on the premises, and the business cannot share a parcel or building with a hotel, motel, bed-and-breakfast, country inn or marina. The Department inspects at least annually.