City officials are working on a new local law to possibly rezone where tattoo parlors are allowed to set up shop.

Last week during a Jamestown City Council work session meeting, city officials discussed reducing zoning restrictions that currently doesn’t allow for tattoo parlors in the downtown area.

Elliot Raimondo, city corporation counsel, said he has been reviewing zoning codes for several cities in the state, of which he said many allow for tattoo parlors in their central business district.

Ben Haskin, city associate counsel, said he looked through 45 zoning codes of other cities in the state and found only one other city with restrictions similar to Jamestown, which was Ithaca where Cornell University is locate. He did find restrictions like how close one tattoo parlor could be to another, which was usually 200 to 250 feet apart. He also said there were restrictions like a tattoo parlor needs to be 200 feet from a park or a school.

The city’s current zoning only allows for tattoo parlors to be located in service and highway commercial, light manufacturing and manufacturing zoned areas of the city. Brent Sheldon, Ward 1 councilman, said the current zoning for the city on tattoo parlors was created in 1969. He said back in 1969, there were no health regulations for tattoo parlors. He said today the Chautauqua County Health Department inspects tattoo parlors and issues a license to allow them to operate.

“Having (tattoo parlors) in the downtown arts district, I don’t have a problem with that,” Sheldon said. “I don’t want people (illegally) do it out of their house.”

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said the idea to reduce the zoning restrictions for tattoo parlors started following a city Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last year.

In November 2019, the zoning board denied a use variance for the operation of a tattoo studio at 14 E. Fourth St. Denise de la Cerda had proposed to open an appointment-only tattoo studio, along with a fine arts studio.

She said there would only be about three appointments a week for the tattoo studio, and didn’t expect that much more foot traffic for the fine arts studio. She said the tattoo business would have been located above Maurice’s Beauty Salon and would have been in close proximity to businesses like the Labyrinth Press Co. and Brazil Craft Beer & Wine Lounge, so the business wouldn’t have been creating a significant increase in foot traffic along East Fourth Street.

de la Cerda said where the city allows for tattoo businesses — in the manufacturing district — wouldn’t be clean enough to get approval from the health department because of dirt, dust and mildew. She said tattoo businesses are becoming more like boutiques and are being located in downtown business districts. She said the business doesn’t belong in the same area as light manufacturing companies.

Surdyk said following the variance denial, Ellen DiTonto, city Zoning Board of Appeals chairwoman, attended a city Planning Commission meeting in December, asking the commission to update the zoning code to possibly allow for tattoo parlors downtown.

Surdyk said the planning commission plans to discuss a local law to provide for rezoning of tattoo parlors in the city during its meeting Tuesday.

The discussion about the outdated zoning for tattoo parlors turned into a talk about whether city officials should review all of the city’s codes. Both Vickye James, Ward 3 councilwoman, and Tamu Graham-Reinhardt, At-Large councilwoman, thought that updating all of the city’s codes might be a good idea. Anthony Dolce, council president, said to redo all of the city’s zoning would be a very cumbersome job. Mayor Eddie Sundquist said he has looked into updating the city’s zoning codes, but said it’s a very costly process to hire a consultant to perform the task. He asked Surdyk to look into the cost of a consultant to possibly update the city’s zoning code.