New Lice Removal Salon Gets Approval From Planning Commission

By: Tony Cassara - Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:52:52 -0800

MARTINEZ (BCN) -- A lice removal salon can now open in Downtown Martinez after the city's planning commission decided Tuesday to categorize the business similarly to beauty salons, city officials said.

The planning commission's decision means two women who rented a space in the 500 block of Main Street will be able to operate a planned lice removal salon there -- the only business of its kind in town, according to Terry Blount, the city's planning manager.

Planning commissioners followed city staff members' advice to allow the new business to operate alongside other commercial shops -- just as lice removal businesses do in Lafayette, Oakland and San Francisco, according to a city staff report.

These cities "have received no complaints from adjacent businesses and the (lice removal) businesses are hugely successful," the report reads.

Since there are no other lice removal businesses in Martinez, planning commissioners had to choose whether the salon is similar enough to beauty salons and barber shops to be allowed in the city's commercial district.

Another option would have been to deem Ladybugs a pest removal business and let it operate only in the city's non-commercial areas, according to the staff report.

Despite some reports of community members who planned to form in opposition to the new business operating in the downtown commercial area, Blount said only two speakers voiced that opinion at Tuesday night's planning commission meeting.

The deadline to appeal the planning commission's decision is March 23.

(Copyright 2012, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)
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