Instead, the County Council shut the door and doused the lights Tuesday with a cap on the number of check-cashing stores that can do business in Magna, Millcreek and the county's four other unincorporated townships.
"I respect the idea of a free-market system," Councilman David Wilde said. "But I think the county has some reasonable right and responsibility to regulate businesses that we feel have some impact on our citizens."
The decision comes on the heels of a nearly eight-month-long moratorium that prohibited the proliferation of payday lenders in Salt Lake County.
The council imposed the new-business ban in October to give the Utah Legislature time to consider statewide restrictions. Then, because of state inaction, officials extended it into April to craft countywide rules.
But the issue remained divisive Tuesday as council members wrangled over which tool - government regulation or the free market - would best control an industry where annual interest rates approach 500 percent.
The council sided with government intervention and voted 6-0 to stunt the growth of check-cashing outlets to one business for every 10,000 people - a limit that would allow no new payday lenders from opening shop in the county's unincorporated communities.
Salt Lake City has contemplated check-cashing restrictions for months. Although those efforts have stalled within the city's sometimes-chaotic Planning Department, the City Council reinvigorated the issue this month and intends to pursue possible regulations.
Density restrictions already are in place in West Valley City, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville, West Jordan, South Jordan, Draper, Sandy and Midvale.
