Parking for "Day Spas"

The city zoning code where I work does not provide a definition for what a beauty salon particularly entails; rather it is grouped under a broad "personal services" definition, which is defined as "establishments primarily engaged in the provision of frequently or recurrently needed services of a personal nature. Typical uses include beauty and barber shops; seamstress, tailor, or shoe repair shops, photography studios; or dry cleaning stations serving individuals and households." Whereas the code identifies the other personal service uses to be parked at 1 space per 400 square feet, barbers and beauty salons are specifically called out to be parked at [B]1.5 spaces per chair[/B]. A cursory look at other municipalities’ codes leads to the same or similar results, where a per-chair calculation is used; and no clear definition is provided.

Gone are the days where there are corner barbershops with quartets and singing divas with bouffants. The era of day spas has emerged, where a salon isn’t just offering hair-care services. Tanning, electrolysis, massage, facials, pedicures, manicures, etc are additional services commonly found in today’s salons. The 1.5 spaces per chair requirement works for such places like “Great Clips” or “Fantastic Sams” where multiple salon services are limited and where it is easy to discern how many “chairs” are present; but for day spas, this is problematic. One option is to count the number of chairs that are being provided within the establishment for barbering while quantifying the space where other services are provided at the 1 space per 400 square feet requirement. The downside of this option, however, is that those areas allocated for services such as facials and hair removal can easily double as a place where barbering can occur. Cosmetologists, after all, are licensed to cut hair in addition to performing services such as facials and manicures. An additional problem is how to treat manicure and pedicure stations. Parking for this could easily be argued either for a per-chair calculation or on a square footage basis. (A lot of manicure stations can be placed inside an 800 sf room, though!)

I am working on a case where it is alleged that a particular day spa does not have a sufficient number of off-street parking spaces to meet the requirement. There is an area within the building with easily identifiable barber “chairs”. It is laid out like a typical commercial hair-cutting establishment, and the 1.5 spaces per chair calculation can be determined. Similarly, there is an area of the building where there is an easily identifiable massage area where a one-space-per-400 sf calculation can be determined. However, the building also consists of many 10’X10’ suites that are leased out to individual cosmologists. These rooms are set up in such a way where hair cutting [I]or [/I]alterative services can ensue. It would be difficult for the city to enforce a requirement that stated that only non-barber related activities can take place in certain suites but not others. However, this may have to be done to get the parking situation to a manageable place. Also within the building, are three separate areas where pedicure and manicure stations are grouped together totaling ten manicure stations, and four pedicure stations. There is pleanty of potential for more stations to be added--again, this would be hard to regulate throughout time.

It would be extremely helpful to have an off-street parking calculation based on this new breed of salon. More restrictive, perhaps, than a one-space-per-400 sf requirement, but not as severe as 1.5 spaces per chair. Does anyone know of a municipality that addresses this, or can anyone offer some advice on how to best tackle this hairy beast?