Across Texas, city councils are taking the regulation of payday and auto title lenders into their own hands. But lobbyists, who were instrumental in blocking some far-reaching state legislation on lender regulations last year, have also been active in opposing municipal ordinances. 

In Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Brownsville, Irving, Mesquite, Sachse, Richardson, Garland and Little Elm, city governments have passed zoning ordinances to limit the expansion of payday lending businesses in their cities.

The ordinances come on the heels of 2011 regulations passed by the Legislature, which some city councils felt were not comprehensive enough. The recent state laws require ...

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