City Council to consider allowing tattoo parlors to operate within city limits
–Paso Robles City Council will discuss making an update to an ordinance to allow for a limited number of tattoo parlors to operate within the city limits. Among other items, they will also discuss and approve purchasing a metal structure to serve as a warming shelter.
Council will vote to approve a resolution authorizing the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Mills Construction for the provision of a prefabricated engineered metal building for the Emergency Warming Center in an amount not to exceed $91,180. The item is on the consent calendar and will not be discussed as an individual item. For more information about this agenda item click here.
Listed as a discussion item, the City Council will consider updating the ordinance regarding tattoo parlors in the city limits.
According to the staff report, in May 1994, the council adopted Ordinance No. 674 to amend the Paso Robles Municipal Code, creating regulations that prohibit the establishment or operation of a tattoo parlor and/or the act of tattooing within the city limits. No amendments to the ordinance have been made in the last 26 years. Part of the intent to prohibit tattooing within the city was the lack of health regulations at the time, since tattoo parlors were not regulated by the State or County regarding the transmission of infectious diseases, according to the staff report. Additionally, tattoo parlors were “not considered to be consonant with the type of image the city wished to project,” states the report.
In recent years, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that tattooing is a form of artistic expression that falls under the protection of the First Amendment; therefore, zoning ordinances that prohibit all tattoo parlors are potentially unconstitutional. In the last several months, city staff has received requests from the public to establish tattoo parlors within the city. The City Attorney now recommends that the city amend the zoning ordinance to allow tattooing in some location(s) within the city to comply with Constitutional protections. The city can limit the total number of tattoo parlors, if it chooses, and apply certain other restrictions and conditions.
Meetings take place at the council chambers, located at 1000 Spring Street with open session starting at 6:30 p.m. Every meeting allows time for comments from the public.
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