When Aberdeen City Councilwoman Dee Ann Shaw first proposed an ordinance limiting the number of allowed garage sales from 10 to two annually, she didn’t expect the backlash she’s received over the proposal.

“I never imagined a one-sentence statement on the radio would create such a stir,” she told the council. She brought it up on a local news radio station shortly after first mentioning the idea at the July 12 council meeting, which generated about an hour’s worth of phone calls to the program.

Ordinance 1709 sparked a lengthy debate at Wednesday’s council meeting at its first reading, but eventually was passed 9-2, with James Cook and Alice Phelps casting the two no votes. It will get a second reading at the Aug. 9 meeting, where the public will be able to comment.

Councilwoman Tawni Andrews started the discussion by talking about the number of questions she received about the ordinance as she volunteered at last weekend’s Aberdeen Art Walk.

“The public doesn’t understand the reasoning behind it,” she said. “They said it just seemed like the city was trying to regulate us.”

Mayor Erik Larson said the intent of the regulation is to crack down on nuisance sales, and the current limit of 10 per year makes for a much more lengthy and expensive investigation to do so.

“Right now we have an unenforced ordinance because it is unenforceable,” he said. “As the number of sales allowed gets bigger it takes more time to enforce.”

The intention behind the ordinance is to crack down on repeat sales in residential neighborhoods, said Shaw.

Councilman Jeff Cook agreed with the language of the ordinance.

“Some people are actually selling things as a business, and by restricting the number we can crack down on those,” he said. “Two is a practical, reasonable compromise.” He said if the people running sales like a business in residential areas don’t like it, “Then let them get a license to run a business.”

Councilwoman Phelps disagreed.

“Some people use garage sales to get them through the month, or the year,” she said. “I think we shouldn’t regulate garage sales; the police chief has too much to do as it is.” She later read from a written statement about students who conduct sales to go on class trips they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Jeff Cook asked how the number of sales would be documented, adding that to his knowledge there had never been a single complaint filed with the city in the past.

“If somebody brought us usable evidence showing a property had already had two sales that year we could let (that property) know the would be in violation of the code if they had another,” said Larson. He added that this is a complaint-based ordinance; if a property is holding more than two sales a year and no neighbors complain, it’s unlikely any violations would be issued.

Councilman Peter Schave added, “We pretty much know the properties that have them all summer long, and those are the properties we’ve had complaints about.”

Shaw continued to defend the two sales a year plan.

“It is meant to keep businesses out of residential areas,” she said. “The two a year policy is workable and gives people an option where you can get something done.”

When councilman Alan Richrod asked if there would be a permitting aspect to the ordinance, to which Larson replied there isn’t.