Regulations / Evaluation Criteria for Pawn Shops & Pay Day Loans

[Kiltie]

I'm looking for information on how other jurisdictions handle pawn shops in terms of regulations and / or evaluation critieria.

I work for a slow growth older city of 650,000 people, and we are having a glut of pawn shops and 'pay day loan' alternative finance businesses pop up in one of our older neighbourhoods.Pawn shops are regulated as a conditional use, but the criteria are very weak. "Pay day loan" style alternative finance businesses are permitted as of right. I have been using the 'concentration' and 'neighbourhood compatibility' arguements for the pawn shops, but I am looking to see how other jurisdictions handle this.

My appologies if there was another post on this subject. I did a search, but all the other related posts were two or three years old, or did not specifically address my issue. Cheers.

 

[Dan]

The zoning code I wrote for the small town where I worked in Florida banned payday loan establishments. The town had limited commercial zoning, and the ban was justified on the basis that such a use would have a disproportionately large negative impact ; it would detract from the creation of a commercial district like that envisioned by the comp plan.

I doubt such an approach would work in a larger municipality, though; the lawyers would be all over it.