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Quik Pawn shop faces rezoning roadblock in relocation to Lorna Road

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Photo by Jon Anderson

Quik Pawn wants to relocate its business on U.S. 31 in Hoover to a shopping center on Lorna Road but is facing a roadblock as it seeks a zoning change.

The company wants to buy the Lorna Village shopping center, which is at 3137 Lorna Road not far from the Hoover Police Operations Center, and relocate there. However, to do so, it would need the property rezoned from a C-1 neighborhood shopping district to a C-2 community business district, City Planner Mac Martin said.

Most of the zoning on the east side of Lorna Road (where this property is situated) is zoned C-1, which serves as a transition between the C-2 zoning on the west side of Lorna Road and the single-family Chapel Hill residential neighborhood to the east, Martin said.

The C-2 community business district allows for quite a number of commercial uses that are more intense than those allowed in the C-1 neighborhood shopping district, Martin said.

He does not recommend the requested rezoning because it could lead to something more disruptive to the Chapel Hill neighborhood, and city leaders are eager to maintain and enhance the character of older residential neighborhoods in the city, he said.

Map provided by city of Hoover

Bill White, who represents the current property owner, FSS Retail Property LLC, told the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission tonight that Quik Pawn has no plans to change the footprint of the building and would only be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day but Sunday.

There’s also a natural buffer between the shopping center building (which now contains about half a dozen businesses) and the Chapel Hill neighborhood, White said. The land drops off steeply behind the shopping center, he said.

Frank Evans, a representative for Quik Pawn, said that from a federal standpoint, Quik Pawn is considered a personal finance institution, which fits more within the definition of a community service business than a retail business. But Hoover considers a pawn shop to be more in the retail category.

Evans said Quik Pawn has been in Hoover along U.S. 31 for 10 years and is only seeking to move because the owner of the building where Quik Pawn is now wants to sell the building to another developer for an expansion of an indoor baseball and softball training center being planned next door.

Photo by Jon Anderson

Quik Pawn’s current lease expires on Oct. 15, but the pawn shop has the option to extend the lease for another five years, he said. However, he doesn’t like to be in a building where he is not really wanted, he said.

If Quik Pawn were to move to the Lorna Village location, it likely would take up most, but not all, of the building, Evans said. Quik Pawn’s current building is about 4,800 square feet, and he likes to have at least 6,000 or 7,000 square feet, he said. One store in Birmingham is about 14,000 square feet, he said.

Businesses currently in Lorna Village include Diva African Braids, Discount Phone Cards, H.E.L.P. Inc., Indian Heritage and VM International Services.

The rezoning case for Lorna Village was scheduled to be heard tonight, but FSS Retail Property asked for a one-month continuance, which was granted. Now, the case is scheduled to be heard at the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 9.

Hopefully, Quik Pawn can work with the city to come up with something that will make everybody happy, he said. He would like to stay in the U.S. 31/Lorna Road area, but there aren’t a lot of options, he said.

In other business tonight, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission:

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