PAWN SHOP PROPOSAL LIKELY DEAD

Andrew Grayson was given the La Grange Village Board's definitive answer this week as to whether his proposed downtown pawn shop will ever see the light of day.

The answer was a resounding "no" -- yet Grayson, who has already been issued a business license to operate All-Star Jewelry & Loan at 71 S. La Grange Road says he is still considering his options.

He and a couple residents who attended the Village Board's July 13 meeting at which pawn shops and a few other business uses such as swimming pool and used building materials stores were banned as permitted uses in the C-1 central business district, feel lost disturbed by the way in which he was treated more than simply opposed.

The budding entrepreneur, who is taking time to consult with his lawyer, is disappointed, he says, a victim of false perceptions of the industry in which he makes a living and of what he calls a lack of common courtesy provided to him by a village whose community development director initially embraced him.

"I had the courtesy of being told by other villages not to bother pursuing a license (one, he says, was Oak Park)," he said following the unanimous board vote agreeing with a Plan Commission recommendation to eliminate pawn shops as a permitted use. "That's why I'm so disappointed. I wasn't given the same courtesy here in La Grange."

Residents Melody Holt and Joan Hoigand agreed that something definitely stunk about the process.

Holt told the board how she felt, while Hoigand became vocal after the meeting.

"I don't think it's precedent setting at all," she argued. "It was business as usual."

But those who vehemently defended the ban countered it was the right thing to do on behalf of a community whose residents and business operators did not think the retail use was in keeping with a business district the village spent so long trying to improve.

Even though Grayson was already granted a license to operate the shop, Village Manager Bob Pilipszyn confirmed that in his mind, what the board enacted this week will fully and legally prevent Grayson from ever opening his intended business where he has chosen to do it. And other officials greed.

"We are able to make this change; the village has the right to put the pause button on," remarked Trustee Thomas Livingston at the Village Hall meeting, adding, "It was in the right for the village to do so. I cannot foresee voting for this ... (a pawn shop) literally in the shadow of this building."

Trustee Mark Kuchler went a step further in reference to building owner John Brannen when he said, "I don't think when the landlord entered into negotiations with the pawn shop that was serving the best intent of the central business district, I don't think that it was."