Elgin City Council considers adding second pawnshop

Elgin City Council members will have to decide whether to allow a second pawnshop in town, but they'll have a couple more weeks to think about it.

EZPAWN Illinois Inc. hopes to join Windy City Jewelry & Loan, 943 N. McLean Blvd., in providing pawn services to customers. The company first planned to open its store with the name EZPAWN but is back before the council asking for zoning approval as Easy Cash Solutions at 1460 Main Lane in the Town and Country Shopping Center.

According to John Hurlbut, local counsel for EZPAWN, representatives asked for two more weeks to discuss the proposal with council members before a vote on their zoning request.

Several members of South West Area Neighbors spoke at the council's meeting Wednesday night and opposed the proposed business as bad for Elgin's image and the neighborhood.

But while pawnshops often get a bad reputation, Mayor David Kaptain said before the meeting that he supports allowing Easy Cash Solutions to open.

Kaptain lives in the Eagle Heights neighborhood, just a couple of blocks from Windy City Jewelry & Loan, which he said has done nothing particularly positive for the area but nothing particularly negative, either.

“To be honest, there have been no problems there,” Kaptain said. “I think a lot of these things are discrimination based on perceptions.”

Kaptain said pawnshops are one of the most regulated industries in the state, and getting a business into the “problem property” in which Easy Cash Solutions plans to open would be good for the shopping center.

“If you've asked people to abide by the rules, tell them, 'Here are all the rules,' how do you say, 'No you can't do this'?” Kaptain asked.

Council members were scheduled to discuss the question of a conditional use for zoning Wednesday. That item was delayed until the June 27 meeting, pushing off the policy question of whether to approve granting a license for the second pawnshop until July.

Licenses for pawnshops are decided on a case-by-case basis. EZPAWN's license will only be considered if the council approves the zoning matter.