City Seeking To Curb Abandoned Carts

By Harry Saltzgaver
Executive Editor

Long Beach took the first step Tuesday night to make it illegal for people to have shopping carts away from the shop.

Stray shopping carts have been an issue, particularly for council members representing downtown neighborhoods, for years. A cart retrieval program has been in place since 1999, including a city-paid contract to pick up carts of stores not part of the program.

“The current cart retrieval system is not working,” said First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal. She chairs the council’s Housing and Neighborhoods Committee, which studied the issue this summer and is offering the new, tougher restrictions.

Right now, carts unclaimed by store owners or managers can be destroyed after 30 days. The California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corporation retrieves carts daily, and receives $300 a month from the city to deal with carts from stores that do not have a contract with them.

That program, according to the staff report, has proven inadequate to keep the carts from proliferating. According to CSCRC’s own figures, nearly 100 carts are abandoned each day in Long Beach.

Lowenthal said the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee agreed with a staff recommendation to shift the focus from retrieving carts to not allowing them off store property in the first place. Other cities have had some success with this approach largely by making it illegal to possess a cart off of store property.

“Common standards in all the ordinances include marking carts with clear and permanent identification,” the staff report says, “making it a crime to remove a cart from the store premises and informing customers through signage and markings that cart removal is prohibited. These measures are critical the success of any proposed ordinance.”

Long Beach’s enforcement actually would be part of the zoning ordinance for retail stores using carts, which means it ultimately would require approval from the city’s Planning Commission as well as the City Council. Lowenthal said that in order to help stores and individuals abide by the new rules, there would be a 180-day grace period before penalties would be enforced.

The new program would require that all carts have permanently attached store identification. Then it would make it illegal to remove a cart from store premises or be in possession of a cart removed from a business. There currently is no penalty proposed for being in possession of a cart, although seizure of the cart is assumed.

Responsibility for keeping carts on store property is placed on the business owners, with a $100 fine possible for carts found off-site for more than 24 hours. There also would be penalties for violating signage or cart identification rules.

Containment options for businesses included a disabling device on carts, security deposits or rental carts, more security personnel and other methods “deemed appropriate to impede the removal of carts.” City staff would encourage stores to help customers find other ways to transport groceries for people who need assistance and are walking.

While the majority of carts are abandoned by people using them to take merchandise home, council members also acknowledged that homeless people use them to transport possessions and “recyclers” use shopping carts to collect cans. However, collecting recyclable material from bins is illegal, Ninth District Councilman Val Lerch pointed out.

“I’m very supportive of this issue, and I’m thrilled we’re finally going to take affirmative action on this,” Second District Councilman Dan Baker said. “I think it has been three or four public works directors since we started on this.”

The council voted unanimously to have the city attorney’s office prepare the ordinance. It will go to the Planning Commission for review before returning to the council for a final vote.