City Council
MEETING DATE: 11/16/2015
TITLE:
Title
Proposed Ordinance Regulating Shopping Carts.
End
FROM:
Pat Milos, Community Development Director
Nicholas Hermsen, Assistant City Attorney
Tuan-Anh Vu, Deputy City Attorney
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve the attached ordinance establishing regulations concerning shopping carts.
Body
BACKGROUND:
This ordinance was reviewed by the City Council at its last meeting on October 28, 2015, at which time the City Council directed staff to bring the matter back on the Legislative agenda for approval. As the City Council may recall, the Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of local businesses, which demonstrated substantial support for implementation of a shopping cart retrieval system.
Code Compliance staff have experienced ongoing problems with abandoned shopping and laundry carts in the City. Oftentimes these carts are found in sidewalks and streets far from the place of origin. They are a blight on the community, impede emergency services, and affect the health and general welfare of the people.
Moreover, Code Compliance staff have expressed concerns about the proliferation of carts and the lack of manpower required to impound them. Currently, the City has no ordinance to appropriately deal with abandoned carts and the business owners who allow the carts to be removed from their property. This proposed ordinance is an attempt to meet this pressing need while acknowledging the limited resources to physically remove carts.
To complicate the issue is the source for many of these carts: a select few businesses located in the neighboring City of Palm Springs. Palm Springs does have a shopping cart ordinance prohibiting abandonment and removal of carts, but does not require owners to implement preventative measures such as cart retrieval services or carriage returns. Owners who violate the ordinance are held liable, including for littering.
Thus, Cathedral City has the dual challenge of preventing “littering” by outside business owners and regulating carts from stores and laundromats within city limits. The proposed ordinance is meant to be a comprehensive set of regulations, designed to empower staff to impound carts, hold persons liable for violations, and compel business owners within the city to adopt preventative measures.
PROPOSED ORDINANCE:
The proposed ordinance contains a mixture of uniform regulations required by state law, and provisions tailored to the needs of this City. This ordinance is modeled after shopping cart ordinances from the cities of Hemet, Anaheim, Riverside, Indio, and Long Beach. The shopping cart ordinances from these cities have not been challenged in court.
State law authorizes two primary methods of impoundment.
1. For carts with affixed signs identifying the owner, local agencies may notify the owner and allow him or her three business days to retrieve the cart. Failure to reclaim the cart allows the local agency to impound the cart and recover the actual costs of the impoundment against the owner. In addition, the local agency may fine the owner $50.00 for each occurrence. If after thirty days the owner does not reclaim the cart, the local agency may sell or otherwise dispose of the cart.
2. Alternatively, the local agencies may immediately impound a cart while providing twenty-four hours’ notice to the owner. If the owner retrieves the cart within three business days, the local agencies must waive all fines and costs. Otherwise, the fines and thirty-day limit apply as normal.
The City would be free to decide which of these impoundment procedures to use, and may develop a policy or simply decide on ad-hoc basis. Moreover, the City may hire contractors to conduct regular sweeps of the city sidewalk and to provide cart retrieval services. This ordinance is broad enough to afford the City Manager or his designee to exercise his discretion in enforcing the law.
Since the state legislature has imposed uniform regulations regarding impoundment, any local ordinance on the same subject must be consistent state law. Indeed, many cities that do have shopping cart ordinances follow the uniform regulations very closely or simply adopt them by reference. As such, the first part of the proposed ordinance mirrors the impoundment procedures laid out by the state. Otherwise, the proposed ordinance may conflict with state law and be subject to legal challenge.
However, in order maintain maximum flexibility for the City, the proposed ordinance contains additional enforcement options.
For carts without affixed signs, a subject not covered by state law, the proposed ordinance allows the City to dispose of the carts immediately. If any cart, whether or not affixed with a sign, impedes access of emergency services or vehicles, the City may immediately remove such carts.
To be sure, removal of the cart without the permission of a business constitutes a criminal misdemeanor under state law. The proposed ordinance here contains the same criminal sanctions.
Aside from impoundment and criminal procedures, the City is specifically empowered to issue administrative citations to anyone, including business owners, for failing to comply with the provisions of the ordinance.
These additional regulations would address the carts coming from Palm Springs. Individuals who take the carts from businesses in Palm Springs and into Cathedral City face civil and criminal penalties. Businesses that allow their carts to be removed and fail to retrieve them when given proper notice would be subject to administrative citations and fines. These measures should deter further abandonment of carts within Cathedral City.
A major requirement for businesses is the Mandatory Shopping Cart Containment and Retrieval Plan. Every business that provides ten or more carts to the public has to submit a viable plan within 60 days the proposed ordinance goes into effect. Similar to any business building permit application, the business owners must prepare a detailed plan to:
• Affix each cart with a sign
• Provide notice to customers that removal of carts is a violation of the law
• Physically restrain carts, such as with wheel locks
• Regularly collect and account for all carts every 24 hours
• Promptly retrieve any cart reported to be abandoned or removed
New businesses that provide carts must submit such a plan. Existing businesses must submit a plan within 60 days of the adoption of this ordinance, or submit one when they renew their business license, whichever is sooner. Each plan is reviewed by the City Manager or his designee for approval. Failure to submit plans subjects the owners to civil penalties.
Taken together, the proposed ordinance declares abandoned and removed carts a public nuisance and authorizes staff to impound carts and hold business owners liable for failure to comply with the law. The requirement of a cart containment plan would also prevent further proliferation of abandoned carts.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council review the attached ordinance establishing regulations concerning shopping carts and direct that it be scheduled for consideration at the next regular City Council meeting, or take other such action as the City Council deems appropriate.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Unknown potential expenditures in connection with cart retrieval program, potentially offset (or partially offset) by recovery of collection costs and fines from violators.
ATTACHMENTS:
Proposed Ordinance