Louisville Metro Council passes new ordinance requiring massage facilities to be licensed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Metro Council passed a new ordinance Thursday implementing new regulations for massage facilities in the city.

The ordinance, which passed 21-4 after hours of debate, requires facilities to operate under a city-issued license, which includes background checks for owners and partners.

The ordinance also requires those facilities be closed from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day and require workers to be fully dressed with no see through clothing.

Sponsors of the new ordinance said this is to address human trafficking that may be happening through those facilities.

"This ordinance is not aimed at the legitimate businesses, it is uniquely designed to provide code enforcement and law enforcement with the necessary tools to effectively go after the human trafficking that is hiding in plain sight in Metro Louisville," Louisville Metro Councilman Jeff Hudson, who sponsored the ordinance, said.

The Louisville Metro Police Department said there are 35-40 illegal businesses out of 375 total massage parlors in Louisville. Over the last year, investigations shut down some of those businesses.

Thursday, skeptics of the ordinance voiced concerns about cost of enforcement, cost of oversight between Louisville Alcoholic Beverage Control and Codes and Regulations.

"This is not a fight, this is just a request to take a moment, just a moment and let's do it right, let's not leave it up for interpretation, let's not put our therapists at risk, let's work together," massage therapist Elizabeth Rackley said.

There was an unsuccessful effort Thursday to table the vote.

"I don't think this solves the problem and I think it penalizes the good players and I wish we would try to not reinvent the wheel on this and go ahead and enforce the laws we already have on the books," Metro Councilwoman Jennifer Chappell said.

Louisville already had a few rules regulating massage parlors, but the city stopped issuing licenses for these businesses 15 years ago.

Hudson said no facilities in the city are licensed right now and are not in compliance with the law.

"I think it's really unfortunate and I want to apologize to the members of the public, particularly the people who are going to be impacted by this admittedly imperfect piece of legislation when it passes," said Metro Councilman JP Lyninger.

Louisville recently launched a task force to address illegal massage parlors, including making recommendations to improve regulations around them.

A spokesperson with Louisville Metro Minority Caucus said he expected Mayor Craig Greenberg to sign the ordinance within the next week or two.

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