The sign updates the meeting dates/times for the Pawn Shop hearing:
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March 27, 2012 01:18 AM
Cruchelow Jewelry and Loan, which is located in the Mack Dobbs Point shopping complex at the corner of Cobb Parkway and Mack Dobbs Road, was recently granted a pawnshop license erroneously.
MDJ file photo
MDJ file photo
KENNESAW — The city of Kennesaw has put the owners of a pawnshop on notice that by using the word ‘loan’ in their name, they are in violation of a state ordinance.
But the bigger issue for people who live near Cruchelow Jewelry and Loan is that the pawnshop should not even exist in the strip mall at Cobb Parkway and Mack Dobbs Road, and the city admits it made a mistake when it granted the business a license last September.
“We had a serious, serious oversight in our zoning department,” Mayor Mark Mathews told the crowd of about 40 residents who attended a city meeting on the issue Monday night at the Ben Robertson Community Center. He also apologized for the mistake.
“That’s not the way we want to do business,” Mathews said. “I fully understand the concerns of our residents.” But the mayor also said he appreciates anyone who tries to open a business in this economy.
The issue dates to 2004, when, in approving a zoning request for property owner Celestino Venturi to build the strip mall, the city agreed — and wrote into city ordinances — that certain uses, including pawnshops, would not be permitted there.
The pawnshop is owned by John and Serena Cruchelow, who did not attend Monday’s meeting. But Nancy Johnson, who described herself as a good friend of the newlywed couple, spoke up on their behalf, sometimes through tears.
“These are two good people,” Johnson said. “They didn’t know they weren’t supposed to be there. What’s being done for them?”
Later, Johnson said the couple had spent $18,000 finishing the space for their shop and could not afford to relocate.
“This is their life savings, and if the city closes them down, they lose their life,” she said. “They just want to bring business to the community.”
A few neighbors responded that they were sympathetic toward the couple, and one woman said she would volunteer to help them move if it would save them money. Most neighbors focused their disdain on Venturi, who has owned the property all along and knew pawnshops were not allowed there. Venturi was not at the meeting and has previously declined to comment to the Journal regarding the shop.
“The owner was well aware of the stipulations,” Mathews said.
Most city council members attended the meeting, as did City Manager Steve Kennedy and zoning administrator Darryl Simmons.
The hearing on the citation over the Cruchelow’s use of the word ‘loan’ will be at the April 2 city council meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at city hall. At that time, the council has three choices: do nothing, suspend the shop’s pawn license, or revoke the shop’s pawn license. The owner could change the shop’s name to solve that problem, and then apply for a variance in an effort to stay put. Mathews said a variance request is expected.
But the residents, one of whom said he brought a petition with signatures of 75 of his neighbors, were clear in wanting the pawnshop gone.
Hope Brandner’s subdivision, Summer Brooke, was built in the late 1990s, long before the strip mall came along.
“It almost feels like we’re being thrown under the bus,” she said.
As for whether the city should help pay for the Cruchelows to locate their business, she said city residents will end up paying for it somehow.
“It’s a no-win situation,” Brandner said. “The developer, No. 1, is responsible because he was aware of it. But the city is also responsible. They admit they made a mistake. They stepped in it. Don’t come in here and try to do some kind of variance because we, the taxpayers who elected you, are not going to be happy with you.”
As for the citation over the word ‘loan’ in the business name, that provision is found in Georgia code section 44-12-138, which states that any pawnbroker who opens up after March 1, 1992, must prominently use the word ‘pawn’ and cannot use the term ‘loan’ in any advertisements.
Johnson, the friend of the Cruchelows, asked if that applies to car-title pawn firms that may use the word ‘loan,’ to which Mathews agreed that it does.
“We are reviewing existing licenses,” Mathews said.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Kennesaw pawnshop hearing will be April 2
