Clovis, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)
Key Facts
- Allowed zone
- C-M District only (permitted by right)
- Register required
- Every purchase, buyer name/age/address
- Inspection
- Open to Police Chief at any time
- Register violation
- Misdemeanor under § 5.9.02
- Zoning source
- Table 2-6, § 9.14.020
Summary
Clovis confines pawn shops to the C-M Commercial and Light Manufacturing District, the only industrial zone where Table 2-6 lists the use as permitted by right. Every secondhand dealer, including pawnbrokers, must also keep a police-inspectable register of each purchase under Chapter 5.9, or face a misdemeanor charge.
§ 5.9.01. Register required. Any person who shall buy, sell, barter, exchange, or otherwise deal in and with secondhand goods or commodities of any kind or description shall immediately enter in the English language in a register to be kept by him the date any secondhand property is purchased and an accurate description of the person from whom it is purchased, including the name, age, and place of residence of such person. § 5.9.02. Register open to inspection. Every such register shall be open to inspection by the Chief of Police, or any of his deputies, or by any officer of the City at any reasonable time. Any person who fails or refuses to produce such register for such inspection or who fails or refuses to exhibit all articles purchased by him in his business as a secondhand dealer to any officer of the City or to the Chief of Police, or any of his deputies, or to any officer holding a warrant authorizing him to search for personal property shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Full Breakdown
020 as a store which offers loans in exchange for personal property as equivalent collateral, noting that unredeemed collateral may be liquidated by the pawn shop through a pawnbroker or secondhand dealer through sales to customers. 020, marks "Pawn Shop" with a "P" for permitted use in the C-M (Commercial and Light Manufacturing) District only; the M-P, M-1, M-2, and R-T columns are blank, meaning the use is prohibited in every other industrial zone and is absent from the residential and commercial land use tables entirely.
9 (Secondhand Goods), which predates the Development Code and applies citywide regardless of zoning. 01 requires any person who shall buy, sell, barter, exchange, or otherwise deal in and with secondhand goods to keep a written register, in English, recording the date of each purchase and the seller's name, age, and place of residence. 02 makes that register open to inspection by the Chief of Police, or any of his deputies, or by any officer of the City at any reasonable time, and separately requires the dealer to exhibit purchased articles on request.
Refusing to produce the register or exhibit the goods is its own violation. Combined, the two chapters mean a would-be pawnbroker in Clovis must both site the shop in the C-M District and maintain the transaction register the Police Department can audit at will.
Violations & Fines
Failing to keep or produce the secondhand-goods register, or refusing to exhibit purchased items to the Chief of Police or a City officer, is a misdemeanor under § 5.9.02. Operating a pawn shop outside the C-M District without the required land use approval separately violates the Development Code and is punishable under § 9.92.030 by up to a $1,000 fine, six months in county jail, or both.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Clovis
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