Committee advances shopping-cart control bill with compliance deadline and daily penalties

Councilmember Fisher, sponsor of CB98, said the bill targets large retailers that provide 20 or more shopping carts at a single site and would require stores to implement mechanisms — such as coin or security-deposit systems, electronic anti‑theft devices or structural barriers — to keep carts on retail property. Fisher said the measure was intended as a first step to address community blight and repeated cart abandonment.

Policy analyst David Noto outlined the bill’s penalties and enforcement provisions; the fiscal analysis included a comparison to Salisbury’s ordinance and concluded higher penalties would likely increase citation revenue if offense rates hold. The Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement (DPIE) reviewed legal concerns and told the committee it would work with the Office of Law and the sponsor on enforcement and retrieval authority. DPIE senior advisor Lori Paris said the department supports the concept but raised practical questions about authority to remove carts from private property.

Testimony from the Maryland Retailers Alliance cautioned that the proposed $2,000 daily penalty is high for many small businesses. Sarah Price said, “The amendments sound better, but the $2,000 fine is still very high.” Sponsor Fisher and other committee members said the steep penalty was intended to create an incentive to retrofit or adopt low-cost measures (Fisher noted an example 25¢ coin-deposit system as an option). The committee approved a package of amendments (striking impoundment language, referencing the County government rather than DPIE throughout, and clarifying ‘‘discard’’ vs. ‘‘abandon’’) and then recommended CB98 favorably as amended by roll call (final recorded vote 4-0).