Fairfax County has started the process of rewriting its regulations for massage therapy businesses for the first time in decades, a step some business owners worry will have consequences.
The plan comes after a March 2020 Board of Supervisors discussion about ways to crack down on illicit massage businesses operating in the county.
The board matter included consideration of possible changes to the county ordinance, and a recommendation from the county executive that came two years later that suggested strengthening the ordinance.
FFX Now was the first to report the county’s proposal. It was discussed during a Board of Supervisors committee meeting in May.
The plan would shift oversight of the businesses from the Department of Cable and Consumer Services to the Department of Health. It would also remove a requirement for therapists to be licensed at the local level, because they already have been licensed by Virginia.
“We are health care professionals, allied health care professionals, and moving us into being permitted by the health department makes a lot of sense,” said Casey White, a board certified and licensed massage therapist at White H.A.R.T. Massage. “It aligns with what we do.”
However, White said, there are several concerning parts included in the proposal. For one, a ban on locking the front door could be a safety concern, she said.
“Oftentimes, there may be only one of us here late in the evening, and we are behind a door with a client, and if we can’t lock our front door, we don’t know who’s walking in while we’re back here helping our client on the table, and that’s a safety issue for a lot of us,” White said.
The proposal also includes a shift to having all massage therapy establishments change floors, ceilings and walls to nonporous materials.
“We were explained to that that puts us in health care,” White said. “I don’t know how that does that.”
What’s in the plan?
The plan also includes restrictions on location. In one version, sleeping quarters are described as not allowed on-site or connected to a businesses. But another version of the proposal bans them adjacent to the business, according to Meg Donnelly, who owns NoVA Weekend Warriors.
That detail could prevent the businesses from operating on the first floor of apartment or condo buildings, Donnelly said.
“There is no reason to have sleeping facilities in a massage establishment that’s in a commercial space. And so we understand the reasoning behind that,” Donnelly said. “It’s just that we want to make sure that we aren’t inadvertently boxed out because of that.”
The proposal bans alcohol and drugs and “obscene, erotic, or sexually explicit advertising.”
A requirement to either do laundry on-site or use a service could be problematic for small businesses, White said.
“A lot of the small practitioners, solopreneurs, they’ll do laundry either at home or at a laundromat to be able to do their linens. And they are now requiring for you to have either on site, and if you have a single room, you’re not going to have space for an on-site laundry, which is what we have here. Or you have to use a service, and the services generally require a much higher volume than any of us do,” White said.
Businesses previously had similar conversations with the Town of Herndon, Donnelly said, but “we’re going from about one page currently that we have on the books of ordinances, and this is 17 pages.”
As of April, there have been almost 2,000 massage establishment permits issued since the end of fiscal 2016, according to county documents.
In a statement, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said the proposal “aims to address concerns about bad actors in the industry while streamlining the regulatory process for compliant businesses. That said, this is only a proposal, and we are still in the early stages.”
Some people suggest “these regulations are really going to be put in place to stop trafficking and to stop sex work,” Donnelly said. But in Arlington and Loudoun counties, “they dropped their regulation because what they said was trafficking is illegal, sex work is illegal, so those two things are able to be prosecuted, and massage therapy is legal,” she said.
“What will happen in Fairfax County, I believe, is we will go to Loudoun County or to Arlington County, where we can practice in compliance with the law. Then, what you’re left with is only noncompliant businesses that are running illegal activities,” she added.
Supervisor Pat Herrity, who mentioned the need for possible changes to the ordinance in 2020, said in a statement that any changes “are meant to address issues with the illicit massage businesses without impacting our many legitimate massage businesses.”
A public hearing on the proposal could be scheduled for later this year.
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