OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The planning board will further review and deliberate before deciding whether to recommend allowing tattoo studios outside of the downtown.
The planning board tabled the decision Thursday night, and will meet again to discuss the issue. After the planning board makes a recommendation, the town council will have the final vote. A public hearing on the matter will be held at Tuesday night’s town council meeting at 7 p.m. at town hall.
The issue came to light recently when Robert Johnson, owner of Good and Evil Tattoo, began planning to move his tattoo business a few doors down on Ocean Park Road. Both locations are in the General Business District 1, which, under town ordinance, does not allow tattoo studios.
Johnson has operated his business in town for a year, and was granted a business license at the former location. It is believed the former code enforcement officer thought tattoo studios were a personal service, which is allowed in the General Business District 1.
Tattoo establishments are not defined in the town code ordinance as a specific type of business or service. Tattoo studios are currently allowed only in the Downtown District 1 and Amusement Overlay District, located in the downtown and Palace Playland amusement area.
Johnson has asked the town to make a zoning ordinance change to allow his business to continue to operate in the General Business District 1.
“In today’s world, tattooing is very much a mainstream profession,” said Johnson Thursday night, noting that his business must follow state regulations and is subject to health inspections. “We’re as clean as a dentist’s office.”
Kathy Smith, who works in the town’s planning department as a business licensing clerk and is also a resident, said town ordinances are created for a reason, and the town shouldn’t start a practice of changing zoning ordinances for one person.
Town Councilor Jay Kelley reiterated some of Smith’s concerns.
“The question is, do we want to change ordinances to meet individual needs?”
Planning board member Mark Koenigs said he understood how the former code enforcement officer could have made “the quote unquote mistake” of categorizing a tattoo parlor as a personal service, and said the town needed to define under what category tattoo parlors should fall.
Koenigs said he thought the tattoo shop should be allowed to operate and pay taxes.
“I’m not willing to restrict a business opportunity,” he said.
Planning board member Win Winch, said at 75 years old, he recalls tattoos once being thought of as something only a “dirty sailor” might get. However, he said, they’ve gone mainstream, and if you take a walk down the beach in the summer, you’ll see many people with tattoos.
Planning board Chairman Carl D’Agostino said that Ocean Park Road is “the gateway” to Old Orchard Beach, and he doesn’t think having a tattoo business there is in the town’s best interest.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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