The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday took the first step in forcing supermarkets and grocery stores to keep shopping carts on their premises.

Citing safety hazards created by abandoned shopping carts on city streets and sidewalks, the council voted unanimously to direct City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and the Planning Department to craft an ordinance in the next 30 days requiring new and remodeled grocery stores to install cart containment systems.

The motion states that any ordinance should allow stores to choose from a menu of containment options, including physical or electronic barriers around supermarket parking lots, sensors on shopping carts or the hiring of additional security guards. Stores that do not adopt containment systems would be fined.

Initially, the ordinance would apply only to new or remodeled grocery stores; however, the motion also directs city administrators to study the feasibility of applying the law to all grocery stores within the city.

Several other cities have laws on their books requiring grocery stores to have containment systems for their shopping carts, most notably Glendale.