Fountain, CO Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Chapter 5.16, adopted by Ordinance No. 1122 in 2000 under the city's home-rule health and business-licensing powers (C.R.S. §§ 31-15-401(1)(b) and 31-15-501(1)(c)), makes it 'unlawful for any person to operate a massage parlor within the city unless the person shall have first obtained a massage parlor license from the city' (§ 5.16.050), with the license required to be 'prominently displayed at all times upon the premises.' Licensing runs through a dedicated massage parlor licensing authority made up of the sitting city council, chaired by the mayor (§ 5.16.040).

An applicant pays a 'nonrefundable' $500.00 application fee at filing, and every applicant, ten-percent-or-greater owner and manager must be photographed and fingerprinted for a Colorado Bureau of Investigation background check paid for by the applicant, plus proof the location meets the city's zoning ordinance (§ 5.16.060). New applications go through a public hearing with posted and published notice at least ten days before the hearing (§ 5.16.070), and a new license cannot be granted for a location within 500 feet of a site where a license was denied for neighborhood-adequacy reasons within the prior two years (§ 5.16.080(C)).

The chapter exempts licensed medical professionals, nurses, barbers and cosmetologists acting within their own licensed scope, hospitals and school athletic training rooms, and registered massage therapists, from needing the separate massage-parlor license (§ 5.16.220). This is City of Fountain law inside city limits only; it does not reach massage businesses in unincorporated El Paso County or in neighboring Colorado Springs.