Jefferson County, AL Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Section 903 of the Jefferson County Zoning Resolution groups "Payday and title loan businesses, pawn shops" together as a single restricted-use category permitted only within the C-1 Commercial District. 5 miles of an existing similar use," which caps how many pawn or title-loan storefronts can cluster along the same commercial corridor, and it "shall not be located within 300 feet of a residential district," keeping the use away from neighborhood boundaries. Because pawnbrokers fall under the Permitted Restricted Uses heading rather than the outright Use Regulations list, the county treats every new pawn shop application as a restricted use subject to these siting limits rather than an automatic by-right approval, even though no separate special-use-permit hearing is spelled out in this section beyond the C-1 zoning requirement itself.

The standard C-1 area and dimensional rules also apply on top of the distance test: a minimum 35-foot front, side, and rear yard, reducible to 15 feet rear or zero feet interior side next to Commercial, Industrial, Institutional-2, Institutional-3, or Utilities zoning, plus the cross-referenced setback provisions of Article 11, Sections 1101 through 1103.