The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
City wants more input on stray shopping cart rules
TORRINGTON — A hearing on changes to a city ordinance regarding shopping carts that end up strewn about the city was held for residents to speak on the matter, but few showed up to do so.
To combat the problem of the stray carts, the Torrington Ordinance Committee added language to Chapter 128 regarding solid waste: garbage, rubbish and refuse, putting the responsibility directly on store owners requiring a plan to assure that the carts are collected on a daily basis.
Committee Chair Ann Ruwet, a member of the City Council, voted to have the April 17 public hearing continued, saying it was important to “get the word out” about the proposed changes. The next hearing will be held during the City Council’s regular meeting May 1.
“We’ve been meeting since last August, with many iterations of this particular ordinance discussed,” she said. “We really need to engage the community. This is a significant change that we’ve been working on since 2022, and I’d like to spread the word. The public works department has also been working to get the word out.”
The committee first presented its proposed revisions in March. The changes focused on the problem of shopping carts, how they are stolen from parking lots belonging to larger retail and grocery stores, and what the city would require of those retailers if the ordinance is enacted.
“Abandoned shopping carts in the city create a potential hazard to the health and safety of the public, interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and create a public nuisance,” the committee wrote in its proposal. “The accumulation of abandoned carts, sometimes wrecked and/or dismantled on public and private property, tends to create conditions that reduce property values, and promote blight and deterioration, resulting in a public nuisance.”
“Further, lost, stolen or abandoned carts result in the obstruction of free access to public and private sidewalks, streets, parking lots, and interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on public and private streets, and impede emergency services,” the committee wrote. “This section is intended to insure that measures are taken by the owners of shopping carts to prevent (their) removal from the owner’s premises, to make removal of a cart a violation of this Code, and to facilitate the retrieval of abandoned shopping carts.”
The committee wants every owner and retailer using carts to develop and implement a specific plan to prevent customers from removing them from the business property; and if removed, the owner would be required to retrieve the cart within 48 hours. This plan would be reviewed annually.
All businesses with shopping carts would be required to maintain an inventory, and written notification, using signs, fliers or a warnings on shopping bags, telling customers that removing a cart from the property is a violation of state and local law. All carts must be labeled with the retailer’s name and identifying information.
The committee also wants to require those retailers to install a disabling device on all carts, post security to prevent people from stealing them, or requiring a security deposit for a cart before it is removed from the store’s “containment system,” according to the draft ordinance language.
Other elements of the ordinance, which has been almost completely rewritten, address littering, dumping, cleaning up pet waste, distributing handbills, posters and other literature, keeping properties clean and free of trash, and penalties for violations.
The ordinance can be found online at https:// rb.gy/g3edp
“Input is so important,” Ruwet said. “I encourage people to give their input (on the ordinance). State statute requires us to do this.”