Gov. Code, § 65850.4 · Article 2. Adoption of Regulations
Gov. Code, § 65850.4
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) The legislative body of any county or city may regulate, pursuant to a content neutral ordinance, the time, place, and manner of operation of sexually oriented businesses, when the ordinance is designed to serve a substantial governmental interest, does not unreasonably limit alternative avenues of communication, and is based on narrow, objective, and definite standards. The legislative body is entitled to rely on the experiences of other counties and cities and on the findings of court cases in establishing the reasonableness of the ordinance and its relevance to the specific problems it addresses, including the harmful secondary effects that the business may have on the community and its proximity to churches, schools, residences, establishments dispensing alcohol, and other sexually oriented businesses.
(b) For purposes of this section, a sexually oriented business is one whose primary purpose is the sale or display of matter that, because of its sexually explicit nature, may, pursuant to state law or local regulatory authority, be offered only to persons over the age of 18 years.
(c) This section shall not be construed to preempt the legislative body of any city or county from regulating a sexually oriented business or similar establishment in the manner and to the extent permitted by the United States Constitution and the California Constitution.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature to authorize the legislative body of any city or county to enter into a legally sanctioned and appropriate cooperative agreement, consortium, or joint powers authority with other adjacent cities or counties regarding regulation of established negative secondary effects of adult or sexually oriented businesses if the actions taken by the legislative body are consistent with this section.
(e) The Legislature finds and declares that in order to encourage the legislative body of a city or county in regulating adult or sexually oriented businesses or similar businesses under this section, the legislative body may consider any harmful secondary effects such a business may have on adjacent cities and counties and its proximity to churches, schools, residents, and other businesses located in adjacent cities or counties.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 550, Sec. 18. Effective September 28, 1999. Operative January 1, 2000, by Sec. 33 of Ch. 550.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=65850.4.
- Text hash
- sha256 56734cac48fa9c4729362da4d5131e9e650253bfc97feb67effecaef78bb66f0
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 1 provision
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Code of Civil Procedure
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