Pawn Shop Rezoning Request Denied by Council
Property owner Tino Venturi lost his bid to keep the pawn shop open at the Mack Dobbs shopping center.
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With a vote of 5-0 on Wednesday, the Kennesaw City Council took care of a mistake made last fall when a local pawn shop was allowed to open its doors in a shopping center despite a 2004 agreement prohibiting such businesses from the property.
Cruchelow Jewelry & Loan, located at 2958 Cobb Parkway in the Mack Dobbs Point strip mall, will have to close its doors after losing a long battle with neighbors from two nearby subdivisions—Summer Brooke and Summer Stream. The city's planning commission had voted 3-0 against the rezoning request earlier this month.
"Please show all of us that laws are meant to be followed," said Summer Stream resident Lisa Stabler during the public hearing portion of the meeting. After the vote, Stabler and many other residents left feeling their voices were heard. "The mayor and city council did the right thing," said Stabler.
Cruchelow Jewelry & Loan owners John and Serena Cruchelow were in attendance, along with property owner Tino Venturi and his attorney, Garvis Sams. After a lengthy public hearing on April 3, the city council was unable to reach an agreement at that meeting as to what to do about the pawn shop.
"Cruchelow Jewelry is a successful extension of a successful shopping Center," said Sams, giving a chronology of the case between the city and his client. "We request approval of this application so this business can continue to operate."
About 40 residents from Summer Stream and Summer Brooke were in attendance, several publicly voicing their disapproval of the pawn shop.
But longtime Kennesaw resident Thomas Smith said he was there to support the Cruchelows.
"Personally, I'm delighted the shopping center is there, and I have no problem with this business," said Smith, who said he can see the pawn shop from his house. "You said OK in 2011 and now you say, 'oops, it's not supposed to be there,'" said Smith, addressing the council. "What part of the baby do you want to cut in two? Good luck, gentlemen and ladies."
Clayton Gibson
11:27 am on Thursday, May 17, 2012
So our small town city government messed up and their solution is to punish the business owners? The council should be recalled since they were the ones that made this problem in the first place by not doing their due dilligence. I hope the owners sue the city for relocation expenses and punitive damages. This is a joke.
Bill
12:30 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
We know that the Venturi attorney Mr Sams will challenge the Council decision in Cobb County Superior Court within the 30 days he has to take up the matter. I assume that pending this court resolution that the Pawn Shop will remain.
If the City 'wins', and it probably will, there is a good possibility of additional court filings. I anticipate that the Pawn Shop would sue both the City, for their error in approving the license and also Venturi, the mall owner. I suspect that one of the grounds for the Cruchelow v. Venturi part of the suit would be that Venturi knew that the pawn shop usage was prohibited, there fore he was negligent in agreeing to least to a pawn shop.
Clearly Venturi would counter this by saying that the Cruchelow's were bragging in their community that they had found a way to beat the City ban on pawn shops in that mall. I assume the way they 'beat' the City ban was to call their shop Cruchelow Jewelry and Loan and only mention 'pawn shop' one time in their 20 page submission for a business license.
So it will be awhile before the pawn shop leaves the mall but it will be an interesting series of court cases.
Faith Bierbaum
2:43 pm on Friday, May 18, 2012
So,Kennesaw rather see an empty store than see a fledgling business do well (and pay taxes and a business licensee fee to the city). Way to go city leaders. So glad I live in the County and don't have to pay your salaries.