Payday Loan Times

Blue Springs is working on regulating no fax payday loan companies.

The City Council on Monday directed City Attorney Bob McDonald to begin drafting an ordinance that would limit such establishments to one per 4,500 residents.

The council also directed him to prepare a 60-day moratorium — to be voted on at the next council meeting — on new cash advance outlets.

The city now has about 54,000 residents and 12 payday loan outlets, McDonald said. The proposed ordinance will call for minimum distances between those outlets, businesses such as pawn brokers and residential areas.

McDonald had provided a report to the council after researching Independence and Lenexa ordinances and other areas’ response to the businesses.

He said Milwaukee conducted a study that showed crime rates went up around the payday advance loan businesses because they don’t have as much security as other financial institutions.

McDonald said there are limits on what Blue Springs can do. It can’t regulate interest rates or set limits that effectively prevent any of the businesses from locating in the city. New zoning regulations wouldn’t apply to businesses already in the city.

Mayor Steve Steiner said he wanted the council to consider the issue after a suggestion from Councilwoman Sheila Solon.

Steiner said he’d talked to the Independence mayor and Brien Starner, president of the Blue Springs Economic Development Corp., who pointed out that an excess of quick payday loan companies makes it difficult to market a city to prospective businesses.

“If there’s a slew of them, they ask what’s going on in a community, ” Steiner said.

Steiner said customers of such businesses often have an income of $35,000 to $60,000. “Just people living beyond their means.”

Solon asked for the moratorium, similar to an action the city took when there was a concern about too many used-car lots. She said she was hearing complaints.

The council asked McDonald to make the bad credit cash loan regulations as tough as possible while legally defensible.

“Push it as far as you think it’s safe to do,” Steiner said.

SOURCE: The Kansas City Star