ONLY ONE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD!
Perry Township Administration Office
3111 Hilton St N.W., Massillon, Ohio 44646
The meeting will begin promptly at 6:00. Anyone who wishes to speak must sign up when they arrive at the meeting. Speakers are given 3 minutes each and may use that time to ask questions, which may or may not be answered on the spot.
Q. We’re getting a pawn shop?
A. The property owner of the vacant lot on the corner of College Street SW and Navarre Road has filed a zoning appeal seeking permission to build a Pawn Shop. This lot is situated at the entrance to the Richville Acre Heights residential neighborhood, surrounded by single family residential homes on all sides except for the portion that fronts Navarre Rd. The proposed site plans indicate that the building will include "Gold and Guns" in the shop name, and will consist of pole barn construction with security bars on the windows and doors, ingress/egress from College Street, and a parking area facing Navarre Road.
Q. Why are we opposed to pawn shops?
A. Most of us aren’t opposed to pawn shops in general, but we do feel that a "Pawn, Gold, and Gun" store directly violates the intended purpose of the parcel’s current B1 zoning code, and that the pawn shop is better suited for its current Perry Township location within the B2 zoning district. Additionally, some neighbors are concerned about the future safety and security of our residential neighborhood as well as potential decreasing property values. Pawn shops attract many types of customers, which include people in desperate financial hardship situations. Pawn Shops also inventory highly valuable items like gold, silver, weapons and ammunition, making the building and its contents a potential target for crime.
Q. What is the difference between B1 and B2 zoning?
A. B1 - Office and Retail Business District states the following Purpose per Section 710.1: “This district is established to create an environment conducive to well-located and designed office building sites, and also to accommodate the sale of convenience retail goods and personal services purchased frequently for daily or weekly needs. It is intended that the design of this district will encourage groupings of establishments located on a unified site providing adequate offstreet parking facilities as well as an efficient and safe method of handling vehicles and pedestrian traffic”. Section 710.2 provides the following limited list of approved uses “public buildings, administrative or executive offices, professional and business offices” with business uses being further defined as “Convenience food stores with retail gasoline pumps, convenience retail uses and personal service stores, being defined as food sales, drug store, barber shop, beauty shop, shoe repair shop, and other similar uses”.
B2 - Commercial District states the following Purpose per section 711.1: "The purpose of this district is to provide for a variety of retail, service, and administrative establishments which are required to serve a large trading area population. This district is also intended to accommodate retail trade establishments in the community which cannot be practically provided for the neighborhood business district development, and are best located on major thoroughfares and outlying areas of the community. Section 711.2 provides approved uses including but not limited to a retail jewelry store and an armory.
Q. Why do we think a pawn, gold, and gun shop violates B1 zoning?
A. 1). B1 zoning is meant to service the “immediate local community with items needed on a weekly or monthly basis” per the stated purpose. Most of us regularly and repeatedly patronize barber shops/beauty salons, gas stations, banks, restaurants, and car repair facilities, right? Just think of how many times have you needed those types of services in the past 3 months. Then consider how many times you've needed a pawn shop in the past 3 months. This comparison helps illustrate the difference between retail establishments that service daily and weekly needs of the local community (B1), versus specialty retail establishments that are meant to pull from a broader area (B2).
2). The location of this parcel does not provide an “efficient and safe method of handling vehicles and pedestrian traffic” for the following reasons:
a.) Though there is a bus stop nearby, no cross walks or sidewalks are provided along this portion of Navarre Road to accommodate pedestrian traffic.
b.) Traffic back ups are common in this area during peak travel times due to the lack of turn lanes at the intersection of Navarre Road and Richville Drive/627 (which becomes Faircrest). This intersection is located approximately 900 feet from the subject parcel.
c.) The submitted plans reflect an entrance/exit to the pawn shop from College Street, which not only requires customers to access the pawn shop from within our residenital neighborhood, it may inadvertantly encourage vehicles to cut through the neighborhood using College Street to access 627/Richville Drive/Faircrest as a method of bypassing Navarre Road traffic.
d.) Though the building may be required to have security lighting, the rest of our surrounding neighborhood does not, as the township does not provide overhead street lighting.
3.) The B1 zoning code includes no provisions for a pawn shop, jewelry store or gun store in the permitted uses or the conditional uses. However, the B2 zoning code does specifically include a jewelry store and also includes provisions for gun and ammunition storage (armory).
Q. I heard this pawn shop was already approved?
A. There was a Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting held on 5/4/2026 in which a conditional use permit was in fact approved. The original meeting notice contained publication errors resulting in community unawareness of the meeting. Neighborhood residents pushed back and requested the 5/4 meeting be overturned so they could have an opportunity to have their opinions and concerns heard. The Township has scheduled a new meeting for 7/27/2026 to review and decision the zoning appeal.
Q. How can I get involved?
A. 1) ATTEND THE 7/27/2026 MEETING WHERE THE DECISION WILL BE MADE! If you’d like your voice to be heard, the most important thing you can do is attend the Zoning Board Variance Meeting (BZA Meeting) on Monday, July 27th at 6pm at the Perry Township Meeting Hall.
2) Place a sign in your yard! Please use the contact form to request signs or send an email to nopawnshopinrichville@gmail.com . The signs cost $437 for 100 so we are asking for a suggested donation of $4 per sign if possible. If you are unable to donate, please don’t worry. It’s more important to us that the signs are displayed.
3) Sign the petition.
Click here to request a "No Pawn Shop In Our Neighborhood Sign" printed with a QR code that leads to this site.
Click here to join the facebook group to stay updated and engage with each other. Be sure to acknowledge the group rules so that your request will be approved. .
Please be kind to each other, to the township trustees, and to the business owner in all communication. A difference of opinion is no cause for hateful behavior.
If you would like to sign the change.org petition that is currently circulating, please click here.