Abandoned and stolen shopping carts targeted by Aurora council

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The Public Safety, Courts and Civil Service Committee of the Aurora City Council voted Thursday to advance an ordinance to the full council that would allow Aurora to seize abandoned and stolen shopping carts.

“The presence of abandoned, stolen, wrecked and/or dismantled shopping carts on public and private property creates a visual blight, is aesthetically detrimental to the community, is injurious to the general welfare of the citizens, and constitutes a public nuisance,” according to the ordinance sponsored by council member Stephanie Hancock. “The City Council believes that by establishing an ordinance that facilitates the removal of lost, stolen, or abandoned shopping carts found away from retail establishments is the best way to reduce this source of visual blight, improve the aesthetic appearance of the city and protect the health and safety of the public.”

Homeless could lose carts

The ordinance also would allow the city to seize shopping carts from people experiencing homelessness. Homeless people could challenge the seizure of the cart through a process whereby they prove they own it, City Attorney for Public Safety Pete Schulte said.

City manager Jason Batchelor said carts mostly would be seized during encampment sweeps. He said the city already has a contract, Keesen, that patrols the city for abandoned carts. It costs $27 per cart to take them either to the landfill or back to the store where it came from. City staff said Keesen does not worry about which store location they return the carts to, as long as it is the store emblazoned on the cart.

Bag proceeds would pay for program

The ordinance allows the cart retrieval program to be paid for with proceeds from the grocery sack fees. Committee Chair Danielle Jurinsky said she does not believe there is going to be enough money from those fees to sustain the program long-term. “More and more people are remembering to bring their own bags,” she said. “This is already something we’re doing and I still see shopping carts all over the place.”

Mayor Mike Coffman agreed. “It’s such an eyesore for the city to have all these abandoned shopping carts around and it enables this unsheltered homelessness to continue.”

City staff said they will work to educate retailers on ways to keep carts in their lots. They said even if the bag fees dwindle, the city could fun the cart program through retailer fees. Jurinsky said the retailers have made it clear in the past that they are not willing to fund cart retrieval.

The full City Council still will have to vote on the shopping cart ordinance twice for it to become law.