Many retail establishments provide shopping carts for the convenience of customers while shopping on the business premises. However, shopping carts removed from the premises of such businesses and left abandoned on public or private property throughout the city constitute a public nuisance and a potential hazard to the health and safety of the public. The abundance of lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts on public and private property causes blighting conditions in the community, results in the obstruction of free access to public and private sidewalks, streets, parking lots, and interferes with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on public and private streets, and impedes emergency services. The purpose of this chapter is to establish regulations to ensure that measures are taken by the owners and operators of businesses which provide ten or more shopping carts to prevent the removal of shopping carts from the business premises and provide prompt retrieval of lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts, to complement state law, and adopt local regulations to the extent not otherwise preempted by state statute.
(Ord. 584-C.S., passed 6-1-10)