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Homestead council approves first reading of shopping-cart control ordinance with six-month compliance window
Summary
City council approved first reading of an ordinance requiring stores to implement cart-retention programs, set a six-month compliance period for existing businesses and a threshold of more than 10 carts for enforcement; council removed a 5,000-square-foot size test after debate over burden on small businesses.
The Homestead City Council approved on first reading an ordinance to require shopping centers to adopt cart-retention programs and to mark carts with store ownership information, Councilman Roth moved and Councilman Conable seconded.
The ordinance sets out approved retention methods — electronic wheel locks, locking arms or active retrieval by store employees — and directs code inspectors to enforce compliance when carts are found abandoned on city rights-of-way. Assistant City Manager Crystal Oliveira told council the draft originally paired a 5,000-square-foot threshold with a 10-cart count but sought direction on whether to keep both measurements or rely on a cart-count threshold alone.
The measure matters locally because city staff spend time and money collecting abandoned carts from streets and rights-of-way, Oliveira said. “The retention is in several different methods. You can have the electronic wheel locking program … or you can have an employee just bring the cart out to the customer’s car and retrieve it,” she said.
Council members debated enforcement and impacts on small businesses. Councilwoman Bailey said she did not see the need to specify square footage and favored tying the rule to the number of carts. Vice Mayor Fletcher and other council members agreed, and the council directed staff to remove the square-footage test and use a line of “over 10 carts” as the enforcement trigger. Council members also supported a six-month grace period for existing businesses to come into compliance.
Council members also discussed disposal and potential cost recovery. Staff said state law preempts fining per cart; the city’s practical process is to secure carts, notify owners, recycle metal parts and send plastic carts to landfill if not claimed. Council members suggested allowing owners to repurchase impounded carts by reimbursing city retrieval costs or offering them at bulk auction rather than sending usable parts to landfill.
The council voted in favor of the ordinance on first reading by roll call. The ordinance will return for a second reading after staff refines language on enforcement, the >10-cart threshold, and a buy-back/recouping process.
Quotes in this article are from public meeting remarks and staff summaries recorded in the council transcript.
