Franklin County, WA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers face two separate hurdles in unincorporated Franklin County: a business registration fee and a zoning restriction that keeps them out of most commercial districts. 00, plus a square-footage charge for space beyond the 3,000-square-foot minimum built into the base registration fee. Applications are reviewed by the county's various departments and approved by the planning and building department director. 170 bars pawn shops and secondhand dealers from the C-2 rural service commercial, C-1 retail business, B-P business park, O office, and C-R regional commercial zones, and from any residential zone.

They're permitted only in the C-3 general business district and the I-2 general industrial district. Even there, the county won't issue a new pawn shop or secondhand dealer license for a location closer than 1,000 feet to an existing pawn shop or secondhand dealer, and any pawn shop or secondhand dealer operating in the C-3 zone must conduct all of its business activities entirely within an enclosed structure, with no outdoor sales or storage of pledged goods. Secondhand dealers are regulated alongside pawnbrokers throughout both sections because the code treats the two as a single use category, so a secondhand store faces the identical fee, zoning and spacing rules as a pawn shop.