Resident urges return to "unlimited" garage sales; council asks staff to research ordinance

A Walled Lake resident told the City Council she wants the city to return to its previous policy of allowing unlimited garage sales, saying recent limits have imposed needless burdens and resulted in enforcement actions.

"We're going back to the old rules of unlimited garage sales," Denise Hewitt said, reading a long account of a past citation, disputes with a neighbor and conversations she said she had with former city officials. Hewitt, who provided her address as 1149 North Eddy Street, said she wants to be able to hold occasional sales without counting days between events.

Council members and staff acknowledged the complaint and asked Hewitt to provide the newspaper article and other documentation as correspondence. Dennis Witt, who Hewitt named in recounting a phone conversation, responded during the meeting: "None of that's true. I never called her in my life," and said he had apologized for how she had been treated by a previous code enforcement officer but has no authority to waive ordinances.

Council members discussed practical concerns such as commercial activity in residential neighborhoods, cars blocking streets and driveways, and the city's current language limiting three sales per year of up to four days each. The presiding member asked staff to collect examples from other cities and to put any supporting material into correspondence for council review.

Rather than change the ordinance immediately, the council said it would "do its homework" and table the matter for a future meeting so staff can prepare comparisons and legal background. The meeting record shows staff will review neighboring ordinances, clarify whether the current language contains a days-between requirement, and report back to council.