PLACENTIA : Law Before City May Impound Store Carts
The City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on an ordinance declaring abandoned shopping carts a public nuisance. The measure authorizes the city to collect $25 for each one it impounds.
City officials say that numerous carts are abandoned on sidewalks and in streets every day throughout the city. While most grocery stores have a cart retrieval service, the ordinance is aimed at those that do not.
“It’s not the grocery stores that are the problem so much as” drug stores and discount stores, city administrator Robert D’Amato said.
The city’s current practice is to pick up abandoned carts and hold them at the city yard for pickup. Under the proposed ordinance, stores that contract with a retrieval service will be notified of a cart’s locations, but carts from stores without the service will be picked up and impounded. The store must then pay a $25 fee to get the cart back.
“The purpose isn’t to make money,” D’Amato said. “We prefer stores to monitor the carts themselves, but when they don’t, the carts become a real liability.”
The ordinance will apply to all abandoned carts regardless of what city they come from. If approved the ordinance will take effect in 30 days.
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