Renegade shopping carts may begin costing stores $100 apiece under a new ordinance that received a first reading during Monday’s City Council meeting that strengthens the city’s nuisance provisions surrounding the carts.

According to Associate Planner Paul Hintz, who gave a presentation in favor of the proposal at a Committee of the Whole meeting earlier this month, the city’s current ordinance, passed in 2005, takes a “passive” approach to the issue and has proven not to be as effective as the city hoped. The new ordinance takes a more “pro-active” approach by increasing the fines and giving the city more power to dispose of the carts quickly.

If passed, the new ordinance gives city staff the ability to immediately impound abandoned carts and issue a $100 fine to the owner. There is also a $25 retrieval fee, which will be waived f the carts are retrieved within two weeks. After 14 days, the city may dispose or sell of any unclaimed carts.

The new ordinance would also eliminate the need for stores to create a cart Containment Plan and there would be no exceptions to the law.

Under the current law, carts with locking devices are exempt for the code and the city may only impound a cart after giving a 24-hour notice. In addition, there is a $50 retrieval fee and the city may not sell or dispose of the carts for 30 days.

Hintz said when the current ordinance was passed stores were required to create a Cart Containment Plan detailing how to manage carts and prevent them from becoming a nuisance, but it has become obvious that it is not working as hoped.

“Evidently, these plans do not fulfill their intent as you commonly see cars left behind in public right-of-ways and other private property in the city,” Hintz told the council.

Though Hintz declined to estimate the number of carts city officials gather in a particular time frame, he did say there were “hundreds of carts” currently in city shops.

Councilman Don Persson said remembered the original ordinance and said that calling stores to come get nuisance carts from areas around the city has not been effective as he regularly sees multiple carts stacked up at bus stops.

Council president Randy Corman said he also remembered the passage and implementation of the current ordinance in 2005 and that there were concerns because it is individuals who take the carts off of store property, but that retailers have not been particularly aggressive about making sure people do not walk away with their carts.

“We’re really asking the retailers to be more diligent,” he said.

Councilman Armondo Pavone, who owns a business downtown, said this week it is not the council’s intention to punish businesses, but the city is simply trying to figure out a solution to what called not only an “eyesore” but a “safety issue.”

“At some point the businesses need to have a little personal responsibility in this,” he said, calling the problem an “epidemic.” “I wish there was an easier way to do this.”

Pavone said he “struggles” with the issue, but ultimately, the lack of effort on the part of businesses to collect their carts has led him to believe this is the best way to deal with the issue.

“There’s been no effort at all,” he said.

Councilman Ed Prince agreed, calling it “galling” that businesses do not pick up carts that have been left around, even those that are visible from their properties.

“If they had been doing what needed to be done when we had this enforcement in place, I would say maybe we shouldn’t come down as hard,” he said this week. “But it seems this problem is just getting worse.”

Renton Chamber of Commerce CEO Vicky Baxter said this week that the Chamber board has no official position on the matter, though she has heard from members that something has to done about the issue.

Baxter also said the Chamber property downtown gathers about eight carts over a two-month period, but stores have been “very good” about coming to pick them up when she has called.

The council will hear a second reading of the ordinance on March 8. The ordinance is expected to pass.