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SECOND AND FINAL READING OF AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ARTICLE II OF CHAPTER 6 OF THE COMMERCE CITY REVISED MUNICIPAL CODE TO CREATE ENFORCEMENT AND FINES FOR ABANDONED SHOPPING CARTS
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Summary and Background Information:
As a part of the MYC3 Program, staff presented Council with the idea of adopting an Abandoned Shopping Cart Ordinance to address the increased number of carts that are left in and around the Core City. Abandoned shopping carts are problematic because once a cart has been removed from the premises of a business and left abandoned on public or private property, it constitutes a public nuisance and a potential hazard to the health and safety of the community. Currently, City staff regularly responds to CRM requests to collect and return abandoned carts, and the new Hot Shot Crew also collects the empty, abandoned carts that they encounter on their routes. However, the problem has become too great to not address in an ordinance as the businesses that own these carts are not always responsive for requests to retrieve their own carts and have not yet taken proactive measures to address this potential health and safety hazard.
During May 22 Study Session discussion about abandoned shopping carts, staff and Council gave direction to address abandoned shopping carts in Commerce City with a find and fine model. Ordinance 2529 reflects the best practices of the find and fine approach, represents the most proactive approach, and avoids the most potential enforcement challenges. The model will also begin to hold businesses accountable for their abandoned shopping carts by requiring all carts be tagged, for the business to implement some form of cart security measure (cart locks, wheel locks, etc.), and for businesses to collect the empty carts within the immediate area of their shops at least once during the 60-minutes after each daily business closing. A failure of a business to retrieve abandoned carts within 24 hours of being cited will result i...
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