Massage therapist pouring oil before massaging a client (photo by alan caishan on Unsplash)
A new massage ordinance adopted by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Nov. 18) aims to be a compromise, ensuring the safety of clients and staff while addressing concerns about illicit activity, including human trafficking.
County supervisors voted unanimously in support of the amendment to the Fairfax County Code, replacing an ordinance that had been in effect since 2000.
The updated version fully recognizes massage therapy “as an important allied health profession,” said Marlene Blum, chair of the county’s Health Care Advisory Board.
The new regulations “will help to build trust in the massage therapy profession,” Blum said.
A number of supervisors requested a review of the existing ordinance in 2020. Two years later, County Executive Bryan Hill formally recommended a rewrite of the regulations.
The new ordinance aims to root out those using massage services as fronts for prostitution and human trafficking while supporting legitimate businesses.
Among other rules, operators must now post an approved permit and their business hours in a “conspicuous” place, meet certain sanitary standards and ensure all therapists are licensed by the Virginia Board of Nursing. Sleeping quarters in massage businesses, massaging and exposing of “erogenous” areas, and drugs and alcohol are now prohibited.
“There are so many businesses who are doing the right thing,” said Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith, who helped craft the final document.
The last thing the county should be doing to those legitimate providers was “putting them through more hoops,” Smith said.
The ordinance change shifts local oversight of the industry to the Fairfax County Health Department. Previously, permitting and some other supervisory activities were delegated to the Department of Cable and Consumer Services.
The new regulations also eliminate county licensing of individual massage therapists, who already are regulated by the Virginia Department of Nursing. Massage establishments will still need to obtain annual licenses from the county government.
At a public hearing prior to its vote on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors was tasked with weighing how to address the issue of individual safety versus community safety — whether providers should be allowed to operate behind locked doors that make it more difficult to inspect properties.
Licensed massage therapist Casey White (screenshot via Fairfax County)
Casey White, a licensed massage therapist who testified at the public hearing, said locked facilities provide safety and security in an industry where more than 80% of practitioners are women who often operate alone.
“They have the right, and their clients have the right, for safety,” White said.
But Laura Moreira, a volunteer program coordinator for the anti-human trafficking organization Reset 180, said allowing locked doors “would significantly weaken our ability to regulate these establishments.”
According to Reset 180 Executive Director Esther Daniel, who also spoke at the hearing, an estimated 169 illicit massage operations are found across Fairfax County. Immigrants forced to work there often perform sexual acts up to 10 times per day, she said.
“These are human beings in our community that we need to protect,” she said, calling on county leaders to “close critical loopholes that traffickers exploit.”
Esther Daniel, executive director of Reset 180 (screenshot via Fairfax County)
“It’s a tough needle to thread,” Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said of addressing competing safety concerns. He was among the supervisors who had called for a reevaluation of the county’s regulations in 2020.
Ultimately, supervisors took a middle ground. They unanimously approved a staff proposal that prohibits businesses from having locked doors or controlled access, with exemptions for solo proprietors and when only one person is working in the space.
Those who do not qualify for automatic exemptions can seek a variance without cost from the county government, officials said.
The new regulations went into effect yesterday (Nov. 19), though the transition of regulatory authority to the health department won’t be official until Jan. 1, 2026.
“We are going to grant a lot of grace in the first year,” said Fairfax County Department of Health official Jessica Werder. “We are not going to move into an aggressive regulatory stance. This is not a transition we’re going to use in a punitive way.”
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said county leaders are willing to help any massage businesses facing challenges from the new regulations.
“If you get into this process and you have a problem, call your [county] supervisor,” he said.
Though the county didn’t meet all of Reset 180’s demands, Daniel called the adopted package a marked improvement from the status quo.
“This ordinance is a bold step,” she said.
White agreed that the county made “great progress” since draft proposals were rolled out earlier this year, although she had ongoing concerns about what she termed subjective and open-ended requirements in the new ordinance.
Despite the discussion of bad actors in the industry, Board Chair Jeff McKay said it was important to remember “the vast majority of these establishments are operating ethically.”
To weed out those who aren’t, Fairfax County police have conducted more extensive enforcement over the past 18 months, Deputy County Executive for Safety and Security Thomas Arnold told supervisors. Those efforts have focused on both licensed and unlicensed establishments.
“There are many locations where this does occur,” Arnold said of pop-up, unlicensed massage businesses.
A number of speakers and supervisors said county staff should work with landlords to remove establishments operating illegally.
Doing so will give the public more confidence in a profession that “is essential to a lot of folks and their health care,” Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck said.
Photo by alan caishan on Unsplash
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