Royal Oak Township, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

The massage-specific control in the Royal Oak Charter Township Code is zoning, found in § 32-768. Subsection (a) states the purpose: the primary control is preventing a concentration of these uses in any one area, meaning not more than two such regulated uses within 1,000 feet of each other, regardless of community boundaries. Subsection (b) prohibits a use on the list if it would be the third within a 1,000-foot radius, and item (12) is massage parlor or massage establishment.

The zoning definition in section 32-4 describes a massage establishment as a place where manipulated massage or manipulated exercises are practiced for pay upon the human body using mechanical, therapeutic or bathing devices or techniques. It excludes duly licensed physicians, osteopaths and chiropractors, nurses working under a physician's direction, and registered physical or occupational therapists and speech pathologists treating patients referred by a licensed physician. It also does not include properly-licensed hospitals, medical clinics or nursing homes, or beauty salons or barbershops giving massages only to the scalp, face, neck or shoulders.

Application is made to the building official and processed as a special land use. If two or more regulated uses already exist within 1,000 feet of the outermost boundaries of the parcel, the building official denies the application, and it is not processed until the applicant receives a waiver. Under § 32-768(d), no regulated use can be established within 200 feet of any property zoned for residential use or within 500 feet of any public or private school, day care center, nursery, or church, synagogue or similar place of worship, and no waiver can cure those two limits. A discontinued regulated use cannot be re-established after 90 calendar days without new township approval. The zoning board of appeals hears waiver requests after the clerk publishes notice not less than 15 days before consideration.

A general merchant's license also applies. Under § 14-23 every merchant procures an initial merchant's license from the Township Clerk, expiring December 31 of the year issued, and § 14-24 bars issuing a license to anyone who needs a state license until evidence of it is submitted.