Santa Ana California – To allow more massage with new regulations
SANTA ANA For the first time in nearly two years, the city has agreed to allow more massage parlors to open.
But here’s the rub: new rules, new regulations and a city-run test for prospective masseuses.
The city blacklisted massage parlors in mid-2007 over concerns that they might operate as fronts for prostitution. At the time, the city was seeing a spike in massage-parlor applications and decided public health, safety and welfare demanded a freeze on such permits.
The City Council voted this week to relax the ban on new massage parlors. But council members also adopted new restrictions designed to give the city a greater say over the location and operation of massage parlors.
New parlors can only open in commercial areas, cannot be within 1,000 feet of other massage parlors or adult businesses and cannot stay open later than 10 p.m. Massage technicians will need either a city or a state license; and to get a city license, they’ll have to pass a city-sponsored test.
The new rules represent the first changes to the section of city code that deals with massage parlors since 1976. Other cities – including Anaheim and Orange – have also taken steps to update their massage regulations in recent years, according to a staff report given to Santa Ana council members.
Building a spa, CA Day Spa, CA Spas, Massage, Massage Technique, Massage Therapists
