12-03-2025 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Staff Report To: Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council From: Ben Harrington, AICP, Community Development Director Date: December 3, 2025 Re: Ordinance 921 – Amending Massage and Complementary and Alternative Health Care (CAHC) Practices Regulatory Standards Action To Be Considered: To adopt, adopt with amendments, deny: • Ordinance 921, an ordinance amending chapters 2202 and 2203, massage and complementary and alternative health care practices, of the Little Canada City Code to regulate non-massage touch-based complementary and alternative health care practices. Background: Under Minnesota Statutes §146A, complementary and alternative health care (CAHC) includes a broad range of healing or therapeutic practices that fall outside conventional medical care, such as massage therapy, reiki, reflexology, energy work, and therapeutic touch. The State establishes limited conduct and disclosure standards for these practitioners but does not license them. Local governments may adopt their own business licensing and performance requirements to ensure consumer protection and regulatory consistency. Cities, including Little Canada, typically license and regulate massage establishments specifically to ensure professional conduct, maintain legitimate business operations, and prevent misuse of such spaces for adult-oriented purposes. City staff have received inquiries from practitioners seeking to offer CAHC services involving physical touch that are not traditional massage therapy. Little Canada’s licensing provisions, found in Chapters 2202 and 2203, were written to regulate traditional massage therapy businesses and narrowly define massage activity, resulting in ambiguity surrounding other CAHC practices involving physical touch. These chapters include performance standards for massage establishments such as hours of operation and practitioner qualifications, as well as a cap of three (3) such establishments citywide. To qualify for licensure, massage practitioners must complete at least 600 hours of coursework in massage theory, anatomy, and hygiene. Staff believe it is prudent to clarify how the city regulates touch-based CAHC practices that are not traditional massage therapy. The City Council discussed this issue at their November 12, 2025, Workshop meeting and provided staff with direction for updating the City’s standards.