Gary’s Common Council approved an ordinance Tuesday to allow residents to operate golf carts for personal transportation in the city.

Council members voted 7-2 in favor of an ordinance by Councilman Herb Smith, D-At large, that calls for Gary police to issue annual permits to allow residents to own and use golf carts on side streets in the city.

They would be prohibited on major streets such as Broadway, Grant Street, Fourth and Fifth avenues, Cline Avenue, Dunes Highway, Clay Street, Airport Road, Industrial Highway and portions of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive — except at intersections with side streets where a person is driving the golf cart across the major street.

An annual fee of $100 for a golf cart permit will be charged by the city, and people found by police to be in violation of the ordinance can be fined up to $2,500 — with the city also having the authority to refuse to renew the permit for future year use.

Smith said he crafted the ordinance at the request of residents and found that Indiana law permits municipalities to regulate golf cart use.

Councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, said she is aware of one resident in the area near King Drive and Ridge Road using a cart to scoot in the neighborhood.

Smith said he thinks Gary ought to encourage the golf cart use because he thinks it can help but upgrade the city’s image. He said people will associate golf carts with upper-income people.

“Affluent people tend to think of using things like this,” he said. “It could help change the way people think about Gary.”

The two council members opposing the measure were Sparks-Wade and Councilwoman Ragen Hatcher, D-At large.

Sparks-Wade said she had concerns about charging people a $100 fee to operate a golf cart. “I think it’s a little steep,” she said.

Hatcher said she didn’t like the idea of giving police officers another reason to regulate Gary residents.

“Do we really want to give police more reasons to pull people over?” she said.

Gary Police Deputy Chief Brian Evans said police are not viewing the new ordinance as a means of issuing more citations. “We will be advising people using the carts if they’re in a condition that might be unsafe,” he said.

The ordinance technically takes effect once Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson gives it final approval, and she said Tuesday she will sign it into law “right away.”

Gregory Tejeda is a freelancer for the Post-Tribune.