Acting on recommendations in the new downtown strategic plan, City Council is poised to eliminate the prohibition of tattoo parlors and limits on personal service uses within downtown and eliminate the need for Planning Board approval for conforming permitted uses.
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.City Council unanimously introduced two ordinances (O-7-22 and O-8-22) during its Feb. 14 regular meeting that are scheduled to come up for a public hearing and final adoption during its regular meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
.O-7-22 would amend the Central Business District (CBD) Redevelopment Plan to eliminate change of use requirement and restrictions on personal service uses and the prohibition of tattoo parlors and body piercing facilities and eliminate Planning Board approval for conforming permitted uses. O-8-22 would amend the city code to eliminate Planning Board approval for conforming permitted uses.
In 2014, City Council approved an ordinance (O-38-14) that reduced the buffer for personal service uses from 1,000 feet to 250 feet, and prohibited “massage parlors, except for full service beauty and health spas that include massage therapy” be permitted within the CBD’s subdistricts (CBD-1, CBD-2 and CBD-3), essentially downtown.
Following downtown plan recommendations
The Planning Board adopted the downtown strategic plan in February, which was also presented to City Council and the Redevelopment Agency last month. Among the recommendations in the plan are eliminating restrictions on personal service uses, like hair or nail salons and spas, and lifting a prohibition on tattoo parlors. The restriction on personal service uses has come up in previous attempts to open such businesses downtown.
To “better align zoning with current market conditions,” the downtown strategic plan includes several recommendations for revisions to the CBD Redevelopment Plan, including removing the prohibition that personal service uses cannot be located within 1,000 feet of each other and cannot be located on the ground floor of the retail core.
“Downtown is not that big so 1,000 feet is a burden,” Fleming said during her presentation to City Council last month. Nationwide, retail has been struggling and there are vacancy issues downtown, she added.
“Many of the vacant storefronts that were observed are small spaces that may be particularly suited to personal service type uses,” according recommended changes to zoning and land use on Page 81 of the downtown strategic plan.
‘Nature of tattoo parlors has changed’
“The nature of tattoo parlors has changed drastically in the last few decades,” Planner Leigh Fleming said during her presentation to the Planning Board last month. “It’s not just a place for bikers anymore, that was the reputation. It’s become more akin to art galleries,” she said.
Currently, the only tattoo parlor downtown is a combination tattoo studio and art gallery, Times of Grace at Main Street and East Milton Avenue across from City Hall.
During the discussion at the February Planning Board meeting, board member Chris Brown, who ultimately voted to approve the strategic plan, said he would support lifting the prohibition on tattoo studios downtown. “I’m a lifelong resident but also a family guy. The one tattoo shop downtown is fine. I don’t see the need to have multiple,” he said.
Planning Board attorney Karl Kemm said at the time that it may not be so much about how many locations but their proximity, just as manufacturing uses aren’t allowed near residential or school areas. “We’ll get to that level of detail in the ordinances and the mayor and City Council will prioritize” the recommendations, he said last month. “That’s the purpose of this, to create a vision and flexibility of City Council to implement what they want.”
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