CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Each year, the City retrieves approximately 900 abandoned shopping carts from public and private property within the city, and Sunrise MarketPlace collects more than 1,000 carts per year within their district. Abandoned shopping carts in the city contribute to blight as well as posing safety concerns when they block public sidewalks or streets. Some carts also end up in the local creeks, which can harm the environment and increase flood risk by impeding water flow. So, the City Council recently considered an ordinance to address this issue.

Under state law, abandoned carts that aren’t impeding emergency services can be left for three days before a city must collect them. The City’s proposed ordinance would strengthen the law by allowing carts to be immediately picked up to reduce blight and nuisance in the city. And it would require businesses with more than five shopping carts to implement measures to prevent shopping cart loss, submit a Shopping Cart Retrieval Plan (SCRP) to the City, and clearly mark their carts with the business name so they can be identified. When carts are collected, the City will notify the businesses, which will have three business days to pick them up without penalty. After that time, businesses would have to pay a $25 fee per cart to get them out of impound. After 30 days, the City would dispose of the carts. If businesses have more than five shopping carts impounded within a six-month period, the City could require them to install a wheel locking system on their carts (which can cost as much as $15,000), or in rare cases, prohibit the business from having shopping carts at all.

Staff explained that many other neighboring jurisdictions have similar ordinances and similar penalties in place–and the punitive measures are there as a tool for special cases when businesses disregard all preventative measures and refuse to cooperate.

During public comment, Citrus Heights resident David Warren said, “This is a futile statute.” He pointed out that carts can be brought in from neighboring jurisdictions, so blight will still continue to be a problem, because the underlying issue is that the homeless need somewhere to store their personal items: “Unless you solve the problem of why they’re being taken, they will continue to be removed regardless of whatever statute you pass.”

The initial draft of the ordinance included a fine for anyone found removing a cart from a business or those in possession of the carts. But some community members expressed concern since the fine would largely be imposed on the homeless and would likely be ineffective, so those aspects of the ordinance were removed.

Councilmember Bret Daniels expressed disappointment that the ordinance focuses on penalties to the businesses instead of the people stealing their carts: “I’m just baffled at why the focus is on the victim here and not on the offender.” He said the abandoned carts are really “stolen property” and the ordinance doesn’t impose any penalty for the people taking and possessing stolen property, so the issue will just continue.

Citrus Heights Police Chief Alex Turcotte said that the penalty removed from the ordinance would only have imposed an administrative fine that would likely never be paid. But he clarified that it is a misdemeanor to be in possession of the carts, and repeat offenders would be addressed through law enforcement.

Councilmember Daniels said, “I think our approach is too heavy handed on the victim of a crime. … We are codifying the ability to fine someone, in a sense, $15,000 because someone stole one of their shopping carts once a month for six months. … There’s no way I’m voting for this. I just cannot do that. I cannot further victimize somebody who has had their property stolen from them.”

City Manager Ashley Feeney said these penalties are “tools in the toolbox,” and that while there is a hammer in this toolbox, they only plan to use it to “bring someone into compliance” if a business is completely disregarding the guidelines in the ordinance. He said the intent of the ordinance is not to make it difficult for businesses that are doing their best to comply.

Councilmember Jeannie Bruins expressed concern about imposing a wheel locking system as a penalty due to the high cost of that system. Feeney said the penalty would be a last resort, and the ordinance would just give the City the discretion to impose the penalty if needed, but they wouldn’t be required to impose it if they feel that the business is trying to comply. Feeney also said that the Council can modify the guidelines if they feel it is too restrictive, and they can also make adjustments after implementation. He said, “Doing nothing, we end up with the same result we have today.”

Bruins said, “Let’s be as kind as possible, and if that doesn’t work, we be less kind.” She supported amending the number to 10 impounded carts per month to incur the potential penalty.

Vice Mayor Tim Schaefer said that at more than 2,000 abandoned carts per year, businesses are losing close to 200 carts a month. He said he’s heard businesses are against the ordinance, but he wondered what solutions they have suggested or if they are even concerned about losing that number of carts: “I don’t know how you convince them that they should care.” He said maybe the threat of penalty will make them care. “We want to really improve the image of the overall city,” he said, “and if we don’t take measures like this and put them in place, what other ways are we going to use to accomplish that?”

After discussion, Council decided to shorten the fee retrieval period down to 10 business days before disposal but also to increase the number of impounded carts to 10 per month before the City could consider harsher penalties such as wheel locking mechanisms.

Council voted unanimously to pass the shopping cart ordinance as amended. It will go into effect December 11, 2022, and final plan implementation is scheduled for the end of March 2023.