By Mary Beth Almond
C & G Staff Writer

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — At age 11, Katie Baxter of Bloomfield Hills is learning the valuable lesson of being an activist.

In January, the East Hills fifth-grader sent a letter to Bloomfield Hills Mayor Dave Kellett requesting that the city lift its longtime ban on garage sales in the hopes that she could hold one to benefit the Michigan Humane Society.

“I wanted to earn money for the Humane Society ... so I wanted to have a garage sale, but we weren’t allowed to in Bloomfield Hills, so we figured out there was a rule against it and we wanted to change that,” Baxter said.

After reading her letter, Mayor Dave Kellett invited Baxter to address the commission at its Feb. 9 meeting.

“The reason why I was enthralled by it was because she brought up something that is very important in the city of Bloomfield Hills, and that’s sense of community. (She) said garage sales allow you to get to know your neighbors, and I think sense of community is very important,” he said.

Margaret Baxter said that although her daughter is shy, she is extremely passionate about helping animals. A dedicated animal lover, Baxter is the proud owner of a Labrador retriever, a German shorthaired pointer, a guinea pig, two fish and two degus — small rodents.

“Katie is a big animal nut, and she has raised over $2,000 for the Humane Society. She’s held bake sales, she’s baked cookies for neighbors, she’s had lemonade stands, and she’s gathered money from her friends at birthday parties,” she said. “She figured this (idea) would be a shortcut to a lot fewer cookies. We’re very supportive of Katie’s efforts, but personally, I don’t really want to hold a garage sale because they are a lot of work, but if she wants to do it, we’re definitely supportive and we’ll certainly help her get that done.”

With her mother in tow, Baxter stood up at the Feb. 9 City Commission meeting to voice her request to the entire commission. She repeated her request March 9.

“My mother and I looked up the current rules and found out that, 1., Bloomfield Hills residents can have sales inside their houses but not in the garage; 2, the person who has a sale has to pay the city $100; 3, you are not allowed to put out any signs or advertise the sale; 4, you have to have a parking plan for people who come to the sale. We believe that all these things need to be considered. Whoever heard of a garage sale without signs? You would not have many people come. Also, if we have a party or a lot of people coming to a party, they park their cars OK without a plan, plus they stay longer. And $100 seems like a lot of money, and it seems like a way of keeping people from having a sale to start with,” Baxter said at the meeting.

Commissioner Pat Hardy said Baxter came with her mother, letter in hand, to give reasons why the city should allow garage sales.

“Through my tenure, many people have asked me why we can’t have them, and there have been several reasons given, but this young lady is making us think about reviewing the policy,” she said.

Although residents are allowed to hold estate sales if they follow the city’s regulations, City Attorney Bill Hampton said residents have not been allowed to hold garage sales since 1999, when the commission first adopted its estate sale ordinance.

“The whole reason why we did this years ago was because we had traffic problems with some of these estate sales, and the emergency vehicles — police and fire — couldn’t get through, so we had to have a parking plan where all the cars were parked on one particular side of the road,” he said.

At the direction of the commission, Hampton introduced a draft ordinance amendment to the estate sale ordinance March 9 to allow residents to hold sales in their garages, advertise the sales in the media, and put up signs — all things that those who hold estate sales are not allowed to do under the ordinance. The amendment also requires a resident wishing to hold a garage sale to file an application for a garage sale license, pay a $100 permit fee, and submit a parking plan — requirements that are all also necessary for estate sales.

Police Chief Rick Matott said his only concern with the idea is if garage sale shoppers accidentally park their vehicles partially on the lawn of nearby homes.

“Most other communities have curbing, so you are stopped by the curb from getting onto the grass area, and there’s other areas without grass in some of the other communities, so you pull your car off to the side of the road a foot or two to be polite to everybody else. If you do that here, on our lawns, we’re going to have an issue there, and they are going to be calling us for who damaged the lawn. Is it the person who came to the garage sale, or the person who hosted the garage sale? That’s something you really have to look at, and consider, especially in our community,” he told the commission.

Commissioner Mike Zambricki also noted that many of the lawns in the community go right to the edge of the road and said they are “highly maintained.” He also shared a concern about increased crime.

“From a public safety standpoint, there is no information linked to increases of crime, although there would be more activity, which would give people the opportunity to scope out what kinds of things are available and what aren’t available in the home that is holding the garage sale,” he said.

The commission asked city staff to research how neighboring communities handle advertising, parking and fees for garage sales, and provide a report at the April 13 meeting.

“You’re seeing government in action tonight. Sometimes it doesn’t work very fast. It works slow, but it ends up getting there somehow,” Kellett told Baxter at the meeting.