HomeMy WebLinkAboutA. Staff Report on Massage Establishments in Palm Desert CITY OF PALM DESERT
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
STAFF REPORT
REQUEST: Receive and File Report on Massage Establishments in the City of
Palm Desert.
SUBMITTED BY: Kevin Swartz
Assistant Planner
DATE: May 19, 2009
BACKGROUND:
At the Planning Commission meeting held on April 21, 2009, the Commission
asked staff to survey and find out how many licensed massage establishments
the City of Palm Desert has, and how many are still operating under a
Conditional Use Permit (CUP).
II. DISCUSSION:
All massage establishments in the City of Palm Desert must apply for a CUP. A
CUP runs with the land, not with the applicant, has conditions of approval
attached, and may be revoked at any time. If a CUP has been approved for a
particular building or suite that has not been vacant for more than one year,
another individual with the same use can lease that building or suite without
having to apply for a new CUP, subject to the same conditions of approval. Once
a CUP is approved, the applicant then applies for a business license with the City
of Palm Desert. In order for Business License to approve a massage
establishment license, the applicant must go through the Police Department for a
background check. This process takes approximately 30 to 60 days to complete,
and based upon the background check, the Police Department can deny the
issuance of a business license.
While researching massage establishments, staff found that the City has
approved 19 Conditional Use Permits. Out of the 19 CUP's, 12 are for
independent stand alone massage establishments. The remaining 7 are
considered a secondary use within an existing business, with the primary use
including salons, skin care, pilates, yoga, and chiropractors. Additionally, the
Marriott Desert Springs has a spa, which includes massage that was approved
during the entitlement process, and did not need a CUP. For the purpose of this
summary report, staff broke massage establishments down into the following:
Staff Report
May 19, 2009
Page 2 of 2
independent massage establishment, massage establishments as a secondary
use, and massage establishments within a hotel. Below is a chart summarizing
the findings.
Approved Independent Massage Massage
CUP's Massage Establishments Establishments
Establishments as a Secondary Within a Hotel
Use
19 12 7 1
III. ATTACHMENTS:
A. Aerial map showing locations of massage establishments
B. Planning Commission minutes dated April 22, 2009
Submitted By:
)(e.-//./
KEVIN SWARTZ
Assistant Planner
Approval:
LAURI AYLAIAN
Directo of Com ity Development
HO ER CRO
ACM, Develo ent Services
C:\Documents and Settings\kswartz\My Documents\Massage Establishments PC report.doc
u.
w
I-
Z
Q
' GERALD FORD DR -
w
Q
..et /
a • 0
0
RANK SINS
F ATRA DR•
NK SINATRA DR-_;; 77750 COUNTRY CLUB#E 1
d ,
A; 73111 COUNTRY CLUB#B-1 • < oI'fi., ?
7 3 r6 °' " 1
74855 COUNTRY CLUB ti 1
, 'il c .
Q I` COUNTRY�CLUB OR�` � COUNTRY CR ,,. '
•
T � y � �s� zOC W 4 Hen p o F p
F' Q .1 tls Qi m s
Z J
O HOVLEY LN W Q" x N , a D <F
▪ �� U 3 a • 77920 COUNTRY CLUB#606
{7
e
�
O� w i F-
N
. • • � ' 1H aa ,▪i ,'� "� 6 �,i Zpp)
HOVLEY A LN E Q
�¢ � 9 h��. z wil,--4xt
72405 PARK VIEW 4 ., .a . ^sr 't_. : 5.7" t -' B
,
MAGNESIA`FALLS DR- 75175 MERLE#150 a ,k1,�, F-"
x; w
72855 FRED WARING#C-16 i * Y [ ">sti� i dZ
P. K VIEW >.. zw Q QQ [s P
#ram 73754 HWY 111#A 1 >. v I " CALIFORN1P ��
3w i s Z,t°h 'I . „ `4 FRED WARING DR n-,,,
m /f/� FRED'WARING DR
}_w�f 73338 HWY 111#6N i�Y' W " 73891 HWY 111
73280 HWY 111#105 0 I1 4; }: 4, . 74350 ALESSANDRO#B-4 f
7' ' " d 43875 WASHING'TON#E
EL ASEO`I #
HMO NTAIN�DR 1 74040 EL PASEO#B
p w t. S _' �I
ig- rQ ' Q FAI Y DR
73844 EL PASEO#106
GRAPEVINES :,, Q _ __
' 72780 EL PASEO#E-4 5 a 0
a Massage Locations
72655 HWY 111#B 7 �. �e �- --.r_•__. __-_.
: 73280 EL PASEO#2
HAYSTACK r"`11.8
O
MESA VIEW DR Q�ytzsot.' h+
.r
f.
s
8
1 inch=4,000 feet
1
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 21, 2009
Action:
It was moved by Chairperson Tanner, seconded by Commissioner
Campbell, by minute motion, appointing Commissioner Mari Schmidt as
the Project Area 4 Committee representative. Motion carried 4-0
(Commissioner Limont was absent).
XII. COMMENTS
1. Regarding the massage establishments tonight, Commissioner
DeLuna expressed concern about the rising tide. She has watched
over the last few years and these types of establishments tend to
cause other issues, legal issues, and if they want to stem that tide,
she would like to make a recommendation, to ask that staff be
directed to look into a moratorium for stand-alone massage
establishments, not necessarily to recommend simply a radius
restriction, but tying it to lack of other services included.
Chairperson Tanner said they would need a motion to request staff
to look into this. They were on record now. They had gone on
record before asking staff to look at the number of establishments
within an area, but this took it one step further and requested a
report, not at the first meeting in May, but at staff's convenience
during the next couple of months. Mr. Bagato said that if it involved
a moratorium, that would have to be initiated by the City Council. If
it was a formal request by the Planning Commission, staff would
take it up to City Council for that initiation.
Chairperson Tanner asked if they were asking for the moratorium at
this time, or just a study leading to the potential for a moratorium.
He thought they might be putting the cart before the horse if they
asked for the moratorium. Commissioner DeLuna clarified that she
asked that staff be directed to look into it. Mr. Bagato asked for
clarification on what data staff should include. Chairperson Tanner
replied the per capita ratio. Commissioner DeLuna said the type of
police reports and demographics. Commissioner Schmidt added
longevity. Are they still in business? When did they start? That type
of thing; and the legality of a moratorium. Mr. Hargreaves also
suggested including any impacts on surrounding businesses. He
thought what they probably wanted to do was direct staff to come
back with a report for the whole Commission and then at that point
decide as a Commission if they wanted to make a recommendation
to the City Council.
9
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 21, 2009
Commissioner Schmidt asked if there were any pending
applications coming to them. Mr. Bagato said yes, there was one
that would come before them in May. If a moratorium was adopted
now, it would impact that one. He said staff could come back with
an updated report, because since 2007 they have processed a few
more CUPs. As well, some may have gone out of business. They
would update the numbers and return with another report when
staff presents the next request for a massage, which would be at
the second meeting in May (May 19).
Chairperson Tanner thought that was fine and asked if that worked
for Commissioner DeLuna. She concurred. Chairperson Tanner
indicated that at that point, they could decide whether to accept the
applicant or put them on hold until the moratorium was
contemplated by Council, if they so directed.
Commissioner Schmidt summarized that staff would do a study and
present it to the Planning Commission at a regular meeting. The
Commission could move to send it on to Council and it would
appear on the earliest possible Council agenda. Mr. Bagato said
that was correct. Commissioner Campbell noted that the staff report
would appear under Miscellaneous on the Planning Commission
agenda. Mr. Bagato concurred.
Commissioner Schmidt asked Mr. Hargreaves what the grounds for
a moratorium would be. Mr. Hargreaves said an eminent threat to
the public health and safety. They would have to say that they need
a chance to study this in depth because they are concerned about
public health and safety kinds of issues, and they could put a
moratorium in place until that process is done. Commissioner
Schmidt indicted that not the least of which would be to that
beautiful young woman in that location. Mr. Hargreaves said that
when they talk about a moratorium, there are temporary
moratoriums which are put in place to give them time to study them,
or there could be a permanent ban on any additional stand-alone
massage establishments. Commissioner Schmidt asked if they
could limit the number in operation at any given period of time. If
one closed, another could come in. Mr. Hargreaves said they
needed to have some objective basis for limitations, but they could
ban them outright; they could ban stand-alone massage. And he
thought for years there was a ban on stand-alone massage; at one
point massage had to be attached to resort hotels and then later on
it opened up. Commissioner Schmidt thought it would be helpful to
revisit that ordinance. Mr. Hargreaves said it might be his faulty
10
MINUTES
PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION APRIL 21, 2009
recollection, but that's what he remembered. Commissioner
Campbell thought he was right. She also felt that if they had
something like this on it, and they had to really prove health issues,
that wouldn't be easy to do. The same thing with restaurants with C
letters instead of A letters. So would they be banned also because
of that C letter? It would be the same thing.
Commissioner DeLuna thought that when they addressed public
safety, there are some legal issues and some police issues. She
had spoken to Lt. Shouse and there are some police issues which
she could enter into the consideration of public safety which weren't
before them now, but could weigh in on how they feel about
handling massage establishments as well. She thought that if staff
could do a study, or whatever process staff goes through, they
would at least have some information. Chairperson Tanner agreed
that it was certainly worth looking into; there was no question about
that.
One question he had was if it was a miscellaneous item on May 19,
if the massage establishment conditional use permit would come
before them as part of that, or if it would be put on hold. Mr. Bagato
said that the conditional use permit would be under public hearings,
and then as a follow-up under miscellaneous, they would talk about
the report and the number of them in existence today since the
previous report, and look up some additional data per capita and
see what quick reports they could get from the police department.
He didn't know what kind of police data they wanted to provide at
this time, because they wanted to do the moratorium to give them
time to research it from a public health and safety standpoint.
Chairperson Tanner asked if that issue would come before them
prior to staff's report. Mr. Bagato said it would be at the same
meeting, but public hearings follow miscellaneous, so it would be
up to them whether or not they wanted to continue it based on what
they decided to do from information in the report. Commissioner
Campbell didn't think that was fair to the applicant. Chairperson
Tanner agreed. Commissioner Campbell thought the proposed
conditional use permit should be taken up on its own and kept
separate from staff's report under miscellaneous.
Commissioner Schmidt asked about the location of the proposed
CUP case. Mr. Bagato didn't recall. Commissioner Campbell noted
that they couldn't discuss it at this time because it wasn't on the
agenda. Chairperson Tanner agreed.
11