New Britain, CT Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Section 220-10-970 of the Zoning Ordinance, approved February 2, 2014 (Item #32578-3), closes the last opening for pawnbroking in New Britain: any use not already named as a permitted use, special exception use, accessory use, permitted home occupation use, or use by temporary permit is a prohibited use, and the ordinance lists pawn shops by name alongside check-cashing establishments, correctional facilities, alternate incarceration centers and half-way houses. Because the Zoning Ordinance defines PAWN SHOP separately (an establishment lending money on pledged personal property redeemable within a fixed period or sold to the public), any storefront meeting that definition falls under the citywide ban no matter which of the city's zoning districts it sits in, from the S-1 single-family district to the I-3 heavy industrial district.

A Connecticut state pawnbroker license under G.S. §§ 21-39-21-47 does not override the local land-use prohibition: the Director of Licenses, Permits and Inspections, who administers zoning enforcement under Section 280-30, will not issue a certificate of zoning compliance or zoning permit for the use, so a state license alone cannot open a shop inside city limits. An applicant seeking to operate must instead petition the Common Council to amend the prohibited-use list itself, since the Zoning Ordinance leaves no discretionary variance path for a use flatly barred citywide.

The prohibition was added in the same 2014 amendment that closed correctional-facility and half-way-house loopholes, reflecting the Common Council's broader effort that year to keep quasi-financial and institutional uses out of every district rather than confine them to specific commercial zones.