Code changed for massage therapists

Massage therapists will now be zoned in

Whitefish as a professional service, the same as physicians and

chiropractors.

City Council approved a zoning code

amendment at their Jan. 3 meeting to allowing massage therapists to

practice in WR-3 and WR-4 zones. Those areas are Spokane Avenue,

Central Avenue south of Third Street, Second Street and Wisconsin

Avenue south of Glenwood Road.

After a city-county planning board

meeting in December, staff recommended moving massage therapy from

“personal” services to “professional” services in the code. The

recommendation was based on the notion that state licensing is now

required for massage therapists.

Massage therapist Wendy Lee Sullivan

spoke at the council meeting and noted that massage therapists are

more regularly seeing clients with injuries and that they sometimes

get prescriptions from chiropractors and physicians.

“Massage therapists are like doctors or

chiropractors in that we see clients, we help, heal, we relieve

symptoms and their pain, and we see one person at a time,” Sullivan

said. “Yet doctors and chiropractors are allowed in zones where we

are not.”

She estimates there are more than 300

body workers in the Flathead.

“There are a surprising number of body

workers in our valley,” she said. “The zoning, as it sits now, only

allows us in WB-l, WB-2 and WB-3. We thank you for that, but it has

become very limiting considering the number of therapist doing body

work in such a small area.”

Council unanimously approved the code

amendment.