City residents need to count the days until a vehicle sells for more than the payoff now.

As of Tuesday, sellers are limited on how long, and how many, vehicles can sit in residential properties with “for sale” signs in the city limits.

This amendment to Chapter 11. Nuisances, Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions, bars city residents from selling commercial vehicles from private property, and limits the amount of time they can sell personal vehicles as well.

The new rule restricts residents to selling two personal vehicles or pieces of lawn equipment per year from a household. In addition, those items can only sit with for sale signs in a yard or driveway for a total period of 90 days in a 12-month period.

The personal vehicles include: passenger vehicles, RV’s, motorcycles, motorbikes and scooters, boats, personal watercraft, non-commercial trailers and motorized lawn equipment.

The amendment passed unanimously.

City Council also voted unanimously to table a decision on another ordinance amendment relating to what gets put at curbside by residents.

The final reading on the changes to solid waste collection and disposal rules has been delayed until council holds further discussion on it at its October work session. Council holds quarterly work session-style meetings designed to delve more deeply into discussion of issues and decisions.

Councilman Gregg Summer, who made the motion to table the final vote on the amendment until October, said the proposal had lots of good elements, but that the changes needed to be “tweaked.”

Under the proposed amendment, some refuse hauling fees would be increased, and the parameters for how some waste is collected could change.

One change would be limiting residents to collections of five cubic yards of yard waste per week, in the proposed ordinance, without charge. City Manager Eric Budds said that the equivalent of five cubic yards is a full-sized pickup truck bed filled to a height of four feet, measuring from the bottom of the bed to the top of the load.

In the amendment which has passed first reading, and been tabled for discussion:

— A second residential garbage cart would be billed at the actual cost of the service. This would make the first cart $7, and the city estimates that will bring a second hopper in at a charge of $10-$13.

— The city may require medical proof of a handicap for rear-yard collection requests. Rear yard collections have always been reserved for handicapped residents, now the city may require proof of the handicap.

— All commercial establishments and industries within the city would have to receive solid waste collection services from the city, or supply proof of a contract with a licensed hauler. Mainly this stipulation affects businesses in the “central business district” or downtown. Businesses in that area previously paid no garbage fees and were not supplied with hoppers, except by special request. Community bulk containers are located throughout downtown for the businesses’ use.

— Language concerning placement of carts for emptying, storage of carts, and the types, locations and amount of permissible yard trash has been clarified.

— Putting yard waste on someone else’s property or right-of-way without permission would be banned, because each residential property would be limited. Also, intentionally blowing, raking, scattering or otherwise distributing yard waste into the street, sidewalks and onto another’s property is specifically forbidden.

The stricter language also forbids the collection of construction materials, automobile parts, tires and debris (such as dirt) mixed with yard waste to be collected with the yard waste.

Residents would have to call to schedule special pickup for items like furniture, carpets, appliances or other metal goods. Pickup for items less than five cubic yards is free, any larger and the fees begin at $50 and go up based on the size of the load.

Those that break the new rules would have 72 hours to correct the situation after being given a “notice of violation.” If the situation is not corrected, the city would pick up the offending materials, and code enforcement fees begin at $100 for a load less than five cubic yards.

In other business, council:

• Passed the first of two readings necessary to convey property, which was used for a sewer lagoon by the city, back to its original owners per the terms of the city’s agreement of 1978 taking control of the one-acre parcel. The city no longer uses the property.

• Approved a request from The Newberry Opera House Foundation to close off streets and sell alcohol at Oktoberfest downtown.

• Approved a request from the Newberry Shrine Club to close off streets on Oct. 31 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. around the Opera House as part of the club’s 2009 Fall Ceremonial that it is using the venue to host. This included permission to consume alcohol within those boundaries.

• Approved a request for city water service at 643 Meadow View Lane and 699 Pope Circle with the property owners agreeing to annex into the city limits if the parcels ever become adjacent to city land, and the city desires the annexation.

• Approved match funding for two Community Development Block Grants, both in the Oakland Mill neighborhood, one for water and wastewater improvements and one for streetscape improvements. The water and wastewater grant is for $450,000 and matching funds from the city are $67,000. The streetscape grant is worth $500,000, and the city is supplying matching funds of $50,000.

• Approved an amendment to the ordinance code that prohibits “unlawful accumulations; weeds, accumulation of rubbish and garbage, and motor vehicles” closing a “loophole” in enforcement allowing for prosecution of both property owners and tenants that violate the ordinance.