San Jacinto is imposing new rules on business owners to get them to do a better job of retrieving stray shopping carts.

The rules are expected to lessen the amount of time city staff has to devote to collecting and storing abandoned carts, according to a report by Assistant City Manager Tim Hults.

"We're going to be sending a letter to each of the businesses that have shopping carts and we're going to give them 60 days to submit a plan," Hults said by phone.

Story continues below

Ed Crisostomo / The Press-Enterprise

New rules in San Jacinto focus on business owners and their stray carts. Above is the city's public works director, Mike Emberton.

The cart-removal prevention plans must outline how businesses will track shopping carts and prevent them from being removed from business premises.

"Hopefully by incorporating the removal prevention plan, less of them will hit the street," he said.

City officials consider abandoned carts a blight -- and sometimes a safety hazard, depending on where they are left.

While on his way to work Tuesday, Hults saw two carts at Idyllwild Drive and Chase Street, a couple blocks from a shopping center at State Street and the Ramona Expressway. He said it looked like the shoppers "got it close to home and probably carried the groceries the rest of the way."

He said San Jacinto code enforcement officers or public works employees pick up stray carts in the public right of way and take them to a city storage yard.

Some businesses hire a cart-retrieval service to fetch stray carts weekly at the yard, according to city Public Works Director Mike Emberton.

Last week, there were about 25 carts before the private service came. On Wednesday, there were 26 carts. Some of them came from retail chains that have stores in Hemet, but not San Jacinto.

If the carts are not claimed within a couple of weeks, they go into a metal recycling bin, Emberton said.

The council approved the new shopping cart rules May 7.

The rules require businesses to use employees or security personnel to prevent removal from the premises.

Businesses must put contact information on their carts and, if the city contacts a business about a stray cart, it must arrange to pick it up during business hours.

Businesses that violate the rules may be subject to administrative citations or fines. The city is working on a cost-recovery fee ordinance to recoup administrative, personnel and hearing costs, according to Hults.

He said the new rules were needed because city staff members were "spending a lot of time picking up shopping carts."

Businesses will be notified of the new rules in writing this month, after code enforcement officers finish compiling a list of all businesses in the city that use carts, he said.

Measures the city is encouraging businesses to implement include electronic tracking devices or cart disabling devices.

City officials have pointed to the Wal-Mart Supercenter on San Jacinto Avenue as a good neighbor. The retailer has carts with electronic devices that lock up the wheels if they are pushed outside an electronic field that runs around the store property, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Anna Taylor said by phone.

"Some cities have ordinances that require systems like that. It's monitored differently at each store," she said.

The retailer also has employees routinely check the parking lot and pick up carts, she said.