WINDSOR HILLS : Pawnshop Plan OKd--for Now

After a contentious hearing, the county Business Licensing Commission voted last week to uphold the right of a pawnshop owner to open a business in Windsor Hills. However, the board also scheduled an additional hearing so homeowners can air their complaints and possibly reverse the decision.

United Homeowner Assn. President Tony Nicholas, whose group represents homeowners in the Windsor Hills area, said he was “very, very disappointed with the outcome,” but added that the battle was far from over.

“The main thing is, people don’t want this business in the community,” Nicholas said after the hearing. “They [pawnshop owners] are forcing themselves on the community. They are not wanted.”

In a 3-2 vote, commissioners granted pawnshop owner Marina Zinberg the right to open a Union Pawnbrokers shop at 5000 S. La Brea Ave., in a strip mall at the intersection of La Brea, Stocker Street and Overhill Drive.

Homeowners had objected to the opening, saying it would be a crime magnet and an eyesore.

The 10 homeowners at the hearing presented nearly 200 letters signed by area residents protesting the pawnshop’s opening, and several testified before commissioners. A representative from county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s office also testified on the homeowners’ behalf.

Longtime resident Yvonne King, co-chairwoman of the association’s beautification committee, said the pawnshop’s “garishly colored” signs are “against everything we’ve worked for.”

King and other residents expressed concern that the pawnshop would attract crime and criticized its proximity to Windsor Hills Elementary School.

Zinberg and her employee, Anthony Silver, said the pawnshop is needed in the community and wrongly suffers from a negative image.

Silver said the shop, along with five others Zinberg owns, has tight security and is in constant contact with local law enforcement officials.

Residents “haven’t even come in to see what I do, see what I have to offer,” Zinberg said.

“I have a good relationship with the other businesses there, with the cleaners and the karate school. I would like to hire someone from the community to work there.”

Sheriff’s officials testified at the hearing that Zinberg violated county ordinances by pawnbroking before obtaining a county license to do so. They said that last month, the La Brea shop loaned money for several items, including an automobile and a gun.

“That was a mistake, an employee doing something he shouldn’t have done but didn’t know,” Zinberg said of the transactions.

Though commissioners voted in Zinberg’s favor, they ruled that the shop can only sell merchandise for now. It cannot do pawnbroking--issue loans for goods--until the matter is settled at an Aug. 9 hearing.

Until then, Nicholas said, he will urge homeowners to write more letters and come to the hearing. “We’re going to pack this place,” he said. “We’re extremely upset.”

Commissioner Bethel Smith, who voted against the pawnshop, said she was disappointed that the commission did not do more to help the residents.

“We have the whole community here, and we are duty-bound to work with them,” she said. “I’m trying to put my finger on the pulse of the people. It’s not that pawnshops aren’t a legitimate business, but it’s clearly not what they want.”