Youngstown, OH Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 709 of the Youngstown Codified Ordinances regulates sexually oriented businesses, defined in Section 709.01 to include adult bookstores, adult moviehouses/theaters and adult cabarets. Section 709.02 bars any of these uses from operating within 500 feet of a church, public or private school, library, public playground, public park or private residence, measured property line to property line. Section 709.04 layers a second, citywide spacing rule: adult bookstores, theaters and cabarets cannot open within 500 feet of each other or of liquor establishments, pool or billiard halls, secondhand stores, payday lenders, tattoo parlors, internet game cafes or sweepstakes businesses, also measured property line to property line, and uses just outside city limits count toward the buffer.

An applicant can seek a waiver from the City Planning Commission, which recommends approval or denial to Council; Council can override a Commission denial only with a three-fourths vote of its elected members, or approve a favorable Commission recommendation by a simple majority, after the applicant collects signatures from more than half of the adults who own property, live or do business within 500 feet. Section 709.03 bars anyone under the age of majority from these establishments. Section 709.05 puts the Deputy Director of Planning in charge of enforcement, and Section 709.06 conditions occupancy on a certificate confirming the use conforms to the chapter.

Annual license fees under Section 709.09 run from $100 for an adult bookstore to $500 for an adult cabaret, or $250 for an adult motion picture theater, and cabarets must close between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. under Section 709.08.