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 notif...
Click here for full text