"If any store has five carts removed from their property in a 24-hour period, their mechanism for dealing with it will be considered ineffective," he said. "This doesn't penalize businesses in any way from the start."
Of the more than 6,725 carts in Burbank, between 400 and 500 shopping carts are strewn throughout the city on a daily basis, he said. Residents and property owners urged the council at Tuesday's meeting to implement the ordinance in order to relieve the urban blight and eyesores that stray carts can cause.
"Abandoned shopping carts are a blight in any neighborhood that they are frequently found in," said 25-year Burbank resident Graham Matthews. "They lower property values; they lower the community pride in the area and they are also dangerous."
Once the ordinance is in place, city staffers will monitor local markets, issuing citations to those found to exceed the five-cart threshold, Hirsch said. If convicted of the citation, the retailer must develop some sort of containment system, which could include installing a barrier, implanting a magnetic locking-wheel system — which would render a cart inoperable off of store grounds — or employing on-premises security staff to monitor cart use.
But some store owners maintain that the new ordinance will have a negative impact on business and does not take into consideration other options for resolving the issue, said Jennifer Forkish, director of local government relations for the California Grocers Assn.
