Massage Businesses – Why are there so many? Spoiler alert – we lost local control.

In 1978, the City of Redondo Beach began regulating massage businesses with strict requirements and a simpler process to revoke business licenses in the event of any violations.

In 2009/2011, the State of California took away all local control by creating a Massage Therapy Organization to regulate massage businesses and collect fees thus bypassing local control.

Massage Businesses flourished without any local control.

In 2015, AB1147 gave some control back to the cities. So that same year, the City of Redondo Beach did the following:

• Zoning regulation changes
• Prohibited any massage business within 1,000 feet of each other.
• Prohibited the re-establishment of a massage business in any location which has been shut down for the next 3 years.

The RBPD has been inspecting 24 businesses (7 on Artesia Blvd.) in Redondo Beach, citing violations in a few of them. Two businesses have been completely shut down (One on Artesia, One on 190th).

Thank you to the Special Investigation Unit, Directed Enforcement Union, Code Enforcement and the Quality of Life Attorney from the City Prosecutor’s Office for successfully closing these 2 businesses, making 3 arrests and issuing 8 citations on misdemeanor filings on 2 others. With our new rules, the closed businesses cannot re-establish themselves for 3 years nor can they re-open if there is a massage business within 1,000 feet. We now have 22 Massage Businesses, 6 of them are on Artesia. RBPD will continue to inspect the businesses.