City Council
MEETING DATE: 10/28/2015
TITLE:
Title
Proposed Ordinance Regulating Shopping Carts
End
FROM:
Pat Milos, Community Development Director
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council review the attached ordinance and the results of the recently commissioned survey conducted by the Chamber of Commerce related to the establishment of regulations concerning shopping carts, and direct that the issue be scheduled for consideration at the next regular City Council meeting, or take action as the City Council deems appropriate.
Body
BACKGROUND:
On May 27, 2015, Staff gave a Study Session update to the City Council related to the ongoing problems with abandoned shopping carts in the City. Abandoned carts are often found on sidewalks and streets far from their place of origin. They are blight on the community, impede emergency services, and affect the health and general welfare of the people of the City as well as creating an unnecessary burden on City Crews. After hearing the update and considering the potential ramifications the City Council directed staff to commission a survey of Cathedral City businesses to gauge their support of a Mandatory Shopping Cart Containment and Retrieval Plan and report the results back to City Council.
DISCUSSION:
Currently, the City has no ordinance to appropriately deal with abandoned shopping carts and the businesses who allow these carts to be removed from their property. The proposed ordinance contains a mixture of uniform regulations required by state law, and provisions tailored to the needs of the 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 Cart impoundment:
1. For carts with affixed signs identifying the owner, local agencies may notify the owner and allow them three (3) business days to retrieve the cart. Failure to do so 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 the cart while providing 24 hour notice to the owner. If the owner retrieves the cart within (3) three business days, the local agencies must wave all fines and costs. Otherwise, the fines and thirty-day limit of method 1 would apply.
The city may choose either of these impoundment procedures to use or may decide on an ad-hoc basis. Moreover, the City may hire contractors to conduct regular sweeps of the City and provide cart retrieval services. This ordinance is broad enough to afford the City Manager or his designee to exercise 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 with 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 to 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 ensure that removal of a cart from a business without the permission of that business constitutes a criminal misdemeanor under state law, the proposed ordinance 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 neighboring cities. Individuals who take carts from businesses in these cities into Cathedral City would 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 element of the proposed ordinance is the Mandatory Shopping Cart Containment and Retrieval Plan. Every business that provides more than 10 shopping carts to the public shall submit a Plan within 60 days after the proposed ordinance goes into effect. The Plan will include the following:
1. Every cart shall have a permanently affixed identification sign.
2. A written notice shall be provided to customers that removal of shopping carts from the premises is prohibited by State law.
3. Specific measures to prevent the removal of shopping carts from the premises.
4. All shopping carts on the premises shall be collected at the end of each business day.
5. The owner shall establish and maintain a cart retrieval program.
New or relocated businesses that provide shopping carts must submit such a plan at the time of applying for a business license. 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 occurs first. Each plan is reviewed and approved by the City Manager or his designee. 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.
The results of a recently commissioned Cathedral City Business survey conducted by the Cathedral City Chamber of Commerce indicated that there is general support for the implementation of regulations controlling Shopping Cart related blight.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The unknown potential expenditures in connection with the cart retrieval program potentially may be offset (or partially offset) by recovery of collection costs and fines from violators.
ATTACHMENTS:,
1. Proposed ordinance
2. Chamber of Commerce related survey results