Pismo Beach, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Two chapters of the Pismo Beach Municipal Code reach secondhand and junk trades. Chapter 5.04, the business license chapter, prices them. Section 5.04.390 covers a junk collector without a fixed place of business at five dollars per day or fifty dollars per year. A fixed place of business, as § 5.04.010 defines it, is premises occupied for the particular business and regularly kept open with a person in attendance, so this rate applies to collectors without such premises. Section 5.04.200 lists flat annual license taxes, and the pawnbroker line reads $100.00, the same amount printed for fortuneteller and hospital. Under § 5.04.020 no person, unless exempt, can engage in business without a license from the administrator, and under § 5.04.030 each location needs its own license.

Chapter 5.11, personal services businesses, is where the pawn and precious-metals trades are defined. Under § 5.11.170, a gold and silver exchange is any establishment accepting gold, silver or other precious metals, primarily from jewelry, in exchange for monies. A pawn shop is any establishment that receives jewelry, precious stones, valuables, firearms, clothing, personal property or other articles in pledge for loans and exacts interest, or that purchases articles and agrees to resell them to the vendors or their assigns at prices agreed at or before the purchase. Banks, trust companies and bond brokers are excluded from the pawn shop definition.

Section 5.11.180 then bars any personal service business defined in that article from being established or operated within one thousand feet of any like establishment. The distance is the minimum linear distance between the closest points along the boundaries of the two parcels, as determined by the community development director or designee. Chapter 5.11 states that its permit requirements and operational restrictions are reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the city's citizens (§ 5.11.010). Title 17 also defines pawn shop in both of its zoning codes, at § 17.006.0814 of the 1983 Zoning Ordinance and in Chapter 17.62 of the 1998 Zoning Code; this page quotes only Title 5.