Jackson County, MS Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

The Jackson County Zoning Ordinance controls pawn shops through its district use schedule rather than a dedicated pawnbroker licensing chapter. 12, governing the C-2 Community Commercial District, lists "Pawn Shop" in its J. Uses Permitted schedule, grouped with other retail and service uses such as package liquor stores, personal care homes, and restaurants or lounges. C-2 is the county's broader commercial district, sitting above C-1 Neighborhood Commercial in intensity and scope, and it is defined to also absorb every use permitted in C-1, but the reverse does not hold: a pawn shop listed only under C-2 cannot locate on a C-1-zoned parcel.

Before opening, an operator must obtain a zoning compliance certificate from the Jackson County Planning Department at 2915 Canty Street in Pascagoula, confirming the parcel carries C-2 zoning and that the building meets the dimensional standards in Table 5-1, including the district's setback and lot-coverage limits. 01 of the ordinance precedes occupancy for any new commercial use, including a change of use from a prior tenant to a pawnbroker. Because Mississippi pawnbroker licensing and transaction reporting run through separate state statutes, the county's role begins and ends at land use: confirming the site is zoned to carry the use and that the structure itself complies with the applicable building and site standards for C-2.