City Council denies jewelry store owner’s request to offer pawn services
Hoping to avoid a “Pandora’s Box” scenario in La Cañada’s Town Center, City Council members recently denied an appeal that would have given a local jewelry store owner the right to expand his business to include pawn services.
Kevork Aposhian, owner of Estate Jewelry Collection on Foothill Boulevard, appeared before the La Cañada Flintridge City Council during an April 19 meeting to ask he be granted a “comparable use determination” that would allow him to not only buy, sell and consign second-hand jewel pieces, but pawn them as well.
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“Another service request I’ve received from La Cañada residents is lending money with jewelry as collateral, which is in the pawn shop category,” said Aposhian, who maintains a state-issued secondhand dealer license that allows him to buy used goods and operate as a pawn broker.
“Why should I let business get away from me?” he asked the council.
The business owner sought to appeal a March 8 decision made by the city’s Planning Commission, which unanimously found offering pawn services not to be comparable to retail jewelry sales and consignment, allowable under the Downtown Village Specific Plan’s “mixed use 1” zoning regulations.
At the council meeting, Aposhian said he would agree to any conditions the council might want to place on his business were an appeal to be granted. But City Atty. Mark Steres explained that if the council declared pawn services a comparable use, the city would not legally be able to place conditions on that use.
“It would just be on the list of permitted uses,” Steres told the council. “Your general pawn shop could (then) open up at that time, with that finding.”
The attorney said the council could pursue a different route to allow Estate Jewelry Collection a more specific right to offer pawn services, if there was any interest in doing so. Council members did not express an interest in that option.
“I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the Downtown Village Specific Plan or the city to allow for a pawn shop,” said Mayor Pro Tem Mike Davitt.
Councilwoman Terry Walker told Aposhian she couldn’t imagine there being a “burning need” in the community for pawning jewelry.
“I appreciate your willingness to have conditions put on it,” she added. “But my concern is that it opens up a Pandora’s Box, where we can’t put conditions on other people, and other people won’t be as reputable as you.”
With a 4-0 vote (Councilman Len Pieroni was absent) the panel upheld the Planning Commission’s decision and denied Aposhian’s appeal.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
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