Mount Vernon, NY Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

City of Mount Vernon Code § 267-4 defines 'ADULT MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENT' as any establishment having a fixed place of business where massages are administered for pay, including but not limited to massage parlors, sauna baths and steam baths, where the massages are normally given to provide sexual stimulation or satisfaction to paying customers. The definition, and the ban that comes with it, expressly excludes health-related facilities such as a hospital, nursing home, medical clinic or health club, and excludes the office of any health-care massage practitioner duly licensed by the State of New York, along with barber shops or beauty parlors administering massages only to the scalp, face, neck or shoulders, and nonprofit community centers, pools, tennis courts or other educational athletic facilities.

Outside those carve-outs, the Code states plainly that adult massage establishments 'are expressly prohibited in the City of Mount Vernon because they may encourage unlawful activity to occur,' citing New York Penal Law Article 230, the state's prostitution statute. Because the prohibition sits in the zoning chapter's definitions article rather than a separate licensing chapter, Mount Vernon has no permit or license track for an adult massage business at all: the use itself cannot be established anywhere in the City, in any zoning district. Legitimate, state-licensed massage therapy remains governed by New York's own professional licensing law rather than a City business license.