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Sec. 33-211. Findings and purpose. (a) Many retail establishments provide shopping carts for the convenience of customers while shopping on the establishment's premises. However, shopping carts removed from the premises of these establishments and left abandoned on public or private property throughout the city constitute a public nuisance and a potential hazard to the health and safety of the public. The proliferation of lost, stolen, wrecked or abandoned shopping carts on public and private property: (1) Create conditions that reduce property values, and promote blight and deterioration of the city neighborhoods, tending to lead to declining property values and increases in crime; (2) Obstruct the free passage along public and private streets, sidewalks, parking lots and other rights of way and/or interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on streets; (3) Impede emergency service; and (4) Clog storm drain channels reducing their ability to function properly, by trapping debris and trash and thereby creating flooding hazards, and constitute violation of the city's waste discharge requirements. (b) For the above-referenced reasons, such lost, stolen, wrecked or abandoned shopping carts are hereby declared to be a public nuisance, which shall be subject to abatement in the manner set forth in this article or in any other manner provided by law. (c) The purpose of this article is to set forth regulations to ensure that reasonable measures are taken by owners of businesses which provide shopping carts on their premises for the convenience of their customers to prevent the removal of shopping carts from business premises and parking lots, and, when removed despite the owner's implementation of its control pan, to provide for the prompt retrieval of such shopping carts. (d) The purpose and intent of this article is additionally to ensure that measures are taken by owners to prevent the removal of shopping carts from a business premises, to make removal of shopping carts a violation of the law, and to facilitate the retrieval of abandoned shopping carts in a manner that supplements and complements state law, but is not preempted with state law. Sec. 33-212. Applicability/Prohibition (a) This article shall apply to all owners of business establishments or other commercial services within the City of Santa Ana that provide more than five (5) shopping carts for customer use. Ordinance No. NS-2725 Page 4 of 13