Livonia Council Denies Massage Business Waiver After Prior Sanctions Come to Light

A prospective operator seeking to take over a massage-establishment waiver at a Middle Belt Road location met a unanimous rejection from Livonia City Council on July 13, 2026, after prior out-of-state sanctions were disclosed during the city's review.

The community recap documenting the denial does not specify the nature of the sanctions, which jurisdiction imposed them, or when they occurred. But they were serious enough to warrant unanimous rejection by the seven-member council, which includes Council President Kayleigh Reid, Vice President Patrick Brockway, and members Carrie Budzinski, Brandon McCullough, Eileen McDonnell, Robin Persiconi, and Martha Ptashnik.

Livonia's review process is designed to bring that kind of history to light before a final council vote. A waiver-use application goes to the City Clerk, then through reviews by the Police, Fire, Engineering, and Inspection departments; the compilation of a background report; and the distribution of a packet to Planning Commission members before final City Council approval. Michigan's statewide massage-therapy licensing rules require license verification to be sent directly from other jurisdictions' licensing agencies and to show that disciplinary proceedings are not pending and sanctions are not in force at the time of application. The prior out-of-state sanctions surfaced through this multi-departmental vetting before the council acted.

In Livonia, a massage establishment is treated as a waiver use in the C-1, C-2, and C-4 zoning districts and as a permitted use in the C-3 district. The city requires massage establishments to maintain a 400-foot separation from other massage establishments and from schools, places of worship, state-licensed day care facilities, public libraries, playgrounds, and public parks, with operating hours limited to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Those proximity rules underscore why operator vetting matters: the businesses sit near the institutions residents most want to protect.

The July 13 denial demonstrates that Livonia's multi-step process — from departmental review through Planning Commission to final council vote — can catch an applicant's out-of-state regulatory history before a waiver is granted. At the same meeting, the council acknowledged a clean audit report for the 2024–2025 fiscal period and passed a directive requiring the administration to report on all city facility rental fees waived or forgiven in the last two years.