Manchester Directors Approve New Massage Parlor Rules - Hartford Courant

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Revised massage parlor regulations specify off-limits body parts, with certain exceptions, while shifting most oversight of the businesses to the town health director instead of the police chief.

Approved by the board of directors on Tuesday, the rules replace 40-year-old regulations that came under review after several massage establishments opened in town within the past year, raising concerns among residents and town leaders.

The new ordinance says massage therapists must have a permit from the health director and will be subject to inspections at least once a year. The health director could shut down a business for violations. The rules are meant primarily to ensure establishments are licensed and clean, but also to protect legitimate massage therapists from being targeted as criminals, officials have said.

Directors first discussed proposed new rules at a December policy meeting. Concerns were raised then about whether the proposed regulation went far enough to deter massage parlors from being used as fronts for prostitution. In response to directors’ concerns and with the advice of a local massage therapist, Assistant Town Attorney Tim O’Neil drafted the revised rules that the board voted on Tuesday.


The regulations spell out unlawful acts, including any placing of hands on a man or woman’s genitals or a woman’s breasts, “with the exception of a licensed massage therapist who has advanced, specialized training to perform massages on the breasts, with the informed written consent of the client.” Both that section and the decision not to include “buttocks” under off-limits body parts were included on the advice of a massage therapist, O’Neil said.

Another section says massage parlors must comply with an array of federal, state and local laws and regulations. Concerns that some directors raised at the policy meeting about parlor managers covering their storefront windows are to be addressed by a special downtown task force that includes board members.

Massage parlor rules adopted in 1977 had not been enforced, town officials acknowledged. Carrying high fees and allowing for aggressive inspections, the rules were designed to target suspected shady establishments and dissuade others from opening similar businesses, O’Neil said.

Manchester police and health department officials visited seven massage businesses recently and found that all therapists had the proper state licenses, officials have said. But police also say that criminal operations continue. The East Central Narcotics Task Force recently arrested two women on prostitution charges at a converted house called Bright Spa near the Superior Court on West Center Street. Local and state officials shut the place down due to multiple building, fire and state labor code violations, police said.


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