Pawn Shop Proliferation Prevented As Skokie Eliminates Unused License

SKOKIE, IL — Village trustees approved an amendment to the Skokie village code that caps the number of permitted pawnshops at two — the number of currently active pawnbroker licenses.

The Skokie Village Board voted 6-1 in favor of the change Monday on the recommendation of village staff.

"Reducing the total number of allowed licenses regulates this particular land use and will ensure it does not proliferate and result in negative cumulative effects of this use," Village Manager John Lockerby said before the vote.

Community Development Director Johanna Nyden was the driving force behind the initiative, according to the village manager.

"It has been shown that stores operating under the pawn shop model, where an item is sold/pawned for money with the ability to purchase back the item for the price plus interest, can potentially result in engaging in predatory practices," Nyden said in a memo.

"Additionally, these uses do not promote commercial activity in business districts," she said. "Individuals selling items or re-purposing items from pawnshops are not likely to purchase goods or services in adjacent businesses."

Nyden told trustees there had been interest in opening another pawnshop or precious metal-pawnbroker hybrid on Dempster Street, where the villages present pair of pawnshops is located.

"None of the businesses are doing anything wrong. They're all in conformance and compliance with our codes," she said Monday. "However, there has been interest from time to time for people operating other stores in other places, which makes it more challenging when you have a few more of them."

Trustee Alison Pure-Slovin, the lone vote against the measure, said she could not comprehend why staff wanted to cut the total number of pawnbroker licenses from three to two, effectively preventing any new ones from opening elsewhere in the village.

"Let's say they're at Dempster Area, but what about in the Touhy Area, a different area of the village that wants to have one of these businesses? And it's only one more business so I don't understand why we have to reduce it to two," Pure-Slovin said.

"I'm not comfortable with the vote because I'm not understanding it," she said.

Nyden said it would be more difficult, from a land use perspective, to regulate pawn shops by corridors compared to villagewide licensing.

"Often the recommendation is that you must allow at least one if you don't want the use in your community, because you can't zone everything out or make decisions that result in everything being removed," Nyden explained. "You can allow one or two, or however many the village deems appropriate, if you want to regulate that use."