Tattoo and massage parlors will no longer be welcome in Palos Verdes Estates, a beach side community near Long Beach. Not that any ink shops or unlicensed masseuses were there to begin with - but just in case, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance to restrict them from commercial zones. Car washes, truck terminals, recycling facilities, dry cleaning plants and cemeteries were also included in the ban. Not wanting to make decisions about appropriate commercial uses after the fact, the City Council pulled the rug out from such businesses before they could even pull a city permit to open shop. This preventive measure springs from the city's dealings with a medical marijuana dispensary last year. In October 2006, five months after the shop opened in Lunada Bay, the City Council debated and adopted a medical marijuana prohibition ordinance. By December the dispensary had vacated.
"Although we don't anticipate anybody wanting a tattoo parlor in town, we also didn't ever imagine that anyone would want a medical marijuana dispensary in town," Planning Director Allan Rigg said.
However, while cities are free to ban cigar shops, car washes, cemeteries and anything else not protected by the Constitution, tattoo parlors could be considered a method of personal expression, and therefore a First Amendment right.
"I would say banning tattoo parlors would be hard to justify," said Roger Diamond, a Santa Monica-based attorney who specializes in free speech issues. "Basically, it's body art that allows someone to express herself or himself."
Diamond said zoning is a legitimate tool cities use to keep harmful and unwanted elements out of their communities. But when it comes to constitutionally protected rights - such as tattoo parlors, with their freedom of speech implications - a city cannot restrict them outright. There must be a designated place for them within the city's limits.
"You can't ban (tattoo parlors) completely, just like you can't ban bookstores or movie theaters," Diamond said.
Rigg said city staff reviewed zoning restrictions of 15 other California cities, including those in the South Bay, when deciding what would not be permissible in Palos Verdes Estates. Tattoo parlors are banned in Torrance and downtown El Segundo, while the municipal codes of Rancho Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach don't include tattoo parlors as a permitted use in their zoning.
"Although we don't anticipate anybody wanting a tattoo parlor in town, we also didn't ever imagine that anyone would want a medical marijuana dispensary in town," Planning Director Allan Rigg said.
However, while cities are free to ban cigar shops, car washes, cemeteries and anything else not protected by the Constitution, tattoo parlors could be considered a method of personal expression, and therefore a First Amendment right.
"I would say banning tattoo parlors would be hard to justify," said Roger Diamond, a Santa Monica-based attorney who specializes in free speech issues. "Basically, it's body art that allows someone to express herself or himself."
Diamond said zoning is a legitimate tool cities use to keep harmful and unwanted elements out of their communities. But when it comes to constitutionally protected rights - such as tattoo parlors, with their freedom of speech implications - a city cannot restrict them outright. There must be a designated place for them within the city's limits.
"You can't ban (tattoo parlors) completely, just like you can't ban bookstores or movie theaters," Diamond said.
Rigg said city staff reviewed zoning restrictions of 15 other California cities, including those in the South Bay, when deciding what would not be permissible in Palos Verdes Estates. Tattoo parlors are banned in Torrance and downtown El Segundo, while the municipal codes of Rancho Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach don't include tattoo parlors as a permitted use in their zoning.
However, the Hermosa Beach City Council will consider an amendment allowing tattoo parlors in commercial zones at its Oct. 16 meeting. Truck terminals, car washes, recycling and salvage facilities and dry cleaners that clean laundry on site, as opposed to sending it elsewhere for processing, were singled out because they were deemed more industrial than commercial, according to Riggs.
As for cemeteries, he said, "They're just not conducive to a commercial center."
As for cemeteries, he said, "They're just not conducive to a commercial center."
Original Source: Daily Breeze, By Megan Bagdonas
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