York County, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

York County, Virginia regulates sexually-oriented businesses through Code § 24.1-470.2, layering distance, visibility, hours, and age restrictions onto the zoning standard. The spacing rule sets two thresholds: a sexually-oriented business must sit at least one thousand feet from the property line of any pre-existing preschool, child care center, nursery school, or public, parochial, or private school through college or university, and at least five hundred feet from any residential zoning district or planned development district, or from the property line of a pre-existing residential dwelling, nursing home or senior housing facility, place of worship or convent/monastery, public or semi-public park or recreation facility, hotel, motel, timeshare resort, or any other sexually-oriented business.

The county measures both distances in a straight line from the nearest part of the building housing the business to the nearest property line of the protected use, ignoring any buildings or other objects in between. Beyond spacing, adult media and adult novelty items cannot be visible from outside the establishment, and any vending machine holding that merchandise must sit inside a permitted adult store. Hours are also capped: a sexually-oriented business cannot open to the public or start any outside activity before 7:00 a.m., adult entertainment businesses must stop by 2:00 a.m., and adult stores must close by 11:00 p.m.

Every sexually-oriented business must limit admission to people eighteen and older, and an overall signage plan with rendered drawings has to be submitted for county review before the business opens.