The commissioner must approve and issue a pawnshop license when the applicant is eligible, and must approve certain pawnshop applications in counties with 250,000 or more people.
Sec. 371.059. APPROVAL; ISSUANCE OF LICENSE. (a) Subject to Subsection (b), the commissioner shall approve the application and issue a license if the commissioner finds that the applicant is eligible for the license. (b) In a county with a population of 250,000 or more, the commissioner shall approve an application for: (1) an original license to operate a pawnshop at a facility that is not an existing licensed pawnshop at the time the application is filed if the proposed facility is not located within two miles of a licensed pawnshop; (2) the relocation of a licensed pawnshop to a facility that is not an existing licensed pawnshop at the time the application is filed if the facility where the pawnshop is to be relocated is not located within one mile of a licensed pawnshop; and (3) the relocation of a licensed pawnshop if at the time the application is filed the pawnshop has been in operation at its current location for at least three years, and the facility where the pawnshop is to be relocated is either within one mile of its existing location or, if in excess of one mile from its existing location, not within one mile of another existing operating pawnshop. (c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b)(3), the commissioner may approve an application for the relocation of a licensed pawnshop that needs to relocate marginally further than one mile from its existing location or that at the time the application is made has not been in operation in its current location for at least three years if the necessity for relocation was caused by circumstances beyond the applicant's control. (d) A determination of distance for purposes of this section is based on a measurement taken from the front door of a facility to the front door of the other facility. For a facility not in existence at the time the application is filed, the location of the front door of the proposed facility must be indicated on architectural drawings or comparable professionally prepared drawings depicting the facility and the entire boundary of the lot or parcel of land to which the facility is to be attached. Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997. Amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1399, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.