Adopt resolution directing the Director of Development Services to submit a request to the California Coastal Commission to certify an amendment to the Certified Local Coastal Program.  (Citywide)
Motion carries. Thank you. Hearing three report from Development Services and Financial Management Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record. Conclude the public hearing and adopt negative declaration 05-17. Declare Ordinance Amending and restating Chapter 5.58 and amending Title 21 of the Long Beach Municipal Code, all relating to regulations of massage establishments read for the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting for final reading and adopt a resolution to submit a request to the California Coastal Commission to certify an amendment to the Certified Local Coastal Program Citywide. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Is there a public comment on this hearing? CNN. Do we need a staff report that we have the data in front of us? We do a few. We do. I did one. Okay. Please go ahead. Carrie Thai, our current planning officer, will have a short report. Good evening again. Before you, tonight is a request to amend the city's regulations for massage uses in accordance with recent changes in state law. There some background on state law, but basically in 2008, the state prevented local jurisdictions from regulating massage. They have since updated the state law, which does allow us to regulate massage uses as long as they have certification. This pertains to Title five and Title 21 of the Municipal Code. Title five hasn't been updated since 1988 and so clearly is outdated. And then also Title 21 treated massage uses as adult entertainment businesses and state law now prohibits us from doing that. So those are the causes of the two updates. The proposed Title five amendments, like I mentioned, have to do with reflecting state law, but it also basically allows for massage businesses to operate not only just as accessory , but also as primary uses. And it has a whole licensing system that's proposed. And then Title 21, like I mentioned, would remove massages from adult entertainment uses, allow them to be permitted as massages, and require an administrative use permit, which is a process that requires a public hearing application fees and has conditions of approval to allow us to enforce the massage uses. There is a buffer of 750 feet that separates primary Massachusetts, and that's one of the most important details about location. So the Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on this in February and has recommended that the Council approve this application. Our project. Thank you. That's what Andrew's council member. Pierce. Yes. Thank you, guys, for all your work on this. I had some clarifying questions. It was stated to me in the briefing that this brought us into alignment with the state rules and regulations on massage parlors. Can you clarify, does the state allow for a massage therapist to get a license and practice massage in her home or his home? Yes. So this ordinance would not allow for massage has to be a home occupation. So that is that is the state might allow for certification and allow for somewhere for operation in a home. But our ordinance does not allow that was my question because I was told that we were being brought up to alignment with the state. And then once I looked at this in detail, found out that that part was not included as somebody. My grandmother was a massage therapist. She had a half of her home dedicated to that business. And I have several residents have reached out to my office that have been frustrated with the system and Long Beach. And so it was my hope and expectation that this would align with the state level on that. So could I get some clarity on why we might have left that out? I, I would just like to just say that we were essentially looking at the inconsistencies in state law in the sense that our code was really outdated in. Terms of how massage is. Treated as a professional service. It's changed over time. In our code. We're still in a period where massage was treated as an adult use, essentially, so our code really needed to be brought up to speed. So the fundamental change that we made was to not consider an adult use, but to change kind of how it was classified as a professional service, which is what it's generally recognized as today. So the state law is probably more permissive than the local law, and ours was essentially putting in place regulations to essentially regulate it as a professional service under generally the same standards, which is as a professional business as opposed to a home occupation. Okay. So what changes would need to be made to allow for somebody to to conduct this professional business, our home business, a lot of misuse start in their home before they open up a storefront. So I want to, you know, make sure that I'm responding to my constituents concerns on this. We currently do have home occupation, a home occupation permit, and there are a number of occupations that that can be done in the home, but there are some. That could not. And the message at this point is one of those that is not authorized, because we didn't change the code. We didn't anticipate. Having massages done in the home. This was strictly massage as a a business opportunity. So my question might be for for the city attorney or what would need to be done to make that change? Can we make that change today or do we need to make that change somewhere else? I believe we'd have to come back because the zoning code would also have to be amended and that would have to go through a planning commission. Okay. Can we get a motion in a second? And Councilwoman Margot. So two additional points that were brought up by massage therapist storefronts in my district. I don't believe this can be folded in tonight, but I would like to see if there are currently storefronts that have expanded and they have multiple facilities now within the city limits and currently under the current business licensing. If you are a hairdresser, someone who does nails, someone who gives massages, you actually need to get a business license at each and every address that you execute according to what they were told by development services when they came here. So if that is true, I'll try to work with you over the next several weeks so that when those licensing fees come back to the Council through the budget process, that perhaps we could find a way that they wouldn't need multiple licenses, they could just do a small add on per location or something along those lines. Because what we're hearing is now that they're opening multiple locations, it's getting difficult for the massage therapists to move between facilities when demand changes. And so they're looking at opening a third one, but they won't open one now because of this restriction and they don't want to have a whole new staffing process. So if we could look at that between now and then, it would be great if that came back through the budget cycle. Thank you. We can certainly work with the finance department to look at the business licensing because that's a business license. Well, we. Understand the concern and we'll. Work with finance to address that issue. Appreciate it. And it would be for people who come here and provide nail supply services and massage services. They all have the same licensing mechanism. Thank you. Thank you. And that's the final. We already called to comment on this. I think we did. Is there any public comment? Okay, so please cast your vote. Motion carries. Thank you. Let's move on to the consent calendar. Can we keep the consent calendar, please? Okay. So I made the motion. I don't see a second here. Is there a second on the calendar? Okay. It's been moved in.