[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Galax as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Licensing — See Ch. 86.
[Adopted as Ch. 10, Art. III, of the 1974 Code; amended in its entirety 10-25-1982]
For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
FIRE AND OTHER ALTERED GOODS SALE
A sale held out in such a manner as to reasonably cause the public to believe that the sale will offer goods damaged or altered by fire, smoke, water or other means.
GOING OUT-OF-BUSINESS SALE
A sale held out in such a manner as to reasonably cause the public to believe that, upon the disposal of the stock of goods on hand, the business will cease and be discontinued, including but not limited to the following sales; adjuster's; adjustment; alteration; assignee's; bankrupt; benefit of administrator's; benefit of creditors'; benefit of trustees'; building coming down; closing creditor's committee; creditor's; end; executor's; final days; forced out; forced out of business; insolvents'; last days; lease expires; liquidation; loss of lease; mortgage sale; receiver's; trustee's; and quitting business.
GOODS
Any goods, wares, merchandise or other property capable of being the object of a sale regulated hereunder.
REMOVAL OF BUSINESS SALE
A sale held out in such a manner as to reasonably cause the public to believe that the person conducting the sale will cease and discontinue business at the place of sale upon disposal of the stock of goods on hand and will then move to and resume business at a new location in the City or will then continue business from other existing locations in the City.
This Article is intended to augment and be in addition to the provisions of Chapter 86, Licensing, and Article II of this chapter. In the event that this article imposes a greater restriction upon persons, premises, businesses or practices than is imposed by Chapter 86 or by any other licensing ordinance of the City, the provisions of this article shall control.
The provisions of this article shall not affect the following persons:
A. 
Persons acting pursuant to an order or process of a court of competent jurisdiction.
B. 
Persons acting in accordance with their powers and duties as public officials.
C. 
Duly licensed auctioneers, selling at auction.
D. 
Any publisher of a newspaper, magazine or other publication, radio or television who publishes, makes an announcement of or shows, in good faith, any advertisement without knowledge of its false, deceptive or misleading character or without knowledge that the provisions of this article have not been complied with.
A permit from the Commissioner of the Revenue shall be obtained by a person before selling or offering to sell any goods at a sale to be advertised or held out by any means to be one of the following kinds:
A. 
A going out-of-business sale.
B. 
A removal of business sale.
C. 
A fire and other altered stock sale.
A. 
No permit under this article shall be granted to any person who has not been the owner of a business advertised or described in the application for a period of at least six months prior to the date of the proposed sale, except for a bona fide fire sale, and excepting also that the heirs, devisees, legatees or personal representatives of a person doing business in the City shall have the right to apply for a permit under this article.
B. 
Any applicant for a permit under this article who has held a sale, as regulated hereunder, at the same location as stated in the application within one-year immediately prior to the date of the application shall not be granted a permit, except for a new bona fide fire sale.
Any permit issued under this article shall apply only to the store described in the application and shall not apply to any other store or branch store owned by the same person at another location, and no other such store or branch shall advertise or represent that it is cooperating in the sale or in any way participating therein.
Any person desiring to conduct a sale regulated by this article shall make application, in writing, to the Commissioner of the Revenue for a permit so to do, giving the following information:
A. 
The true name and address of the owner of the goods to be the object of the sale.
B. 
A description of the place where such sale is to be held.
C. 
The nature of the occupancy, whether by lease or sublease, and the effective date of termination of such occupancy.
D. 
The dates of the period of time in which the sale is to be conducted.
E. 
A full and complete statement of the facts in regard to the sale, including the reason for the urgent and expeditious disposal of goods thereby and the manner in which the sale will be conducted.
F. 
The means to be employed in advertising such sale, together with the proposed content of any advertisement.
G. 
A complete and detailed inventory of the goods to be sold at such sale as disclosed by the applicant's records. This inventory shall be attached to and become part of the required application, or, in lieu of an inventory made immediately prior to applying for the permit, the most recent inventory made of the business assets plus a complete list of all purchases made since the date of inventory to the date of application may be used.
(1) 
Bona fide orders. All goods included in the inventory mentioned in this Subsection G shall have been purchased by the applicant for resale on bona fide orders without cancellation privileges and shall not comprise goods purchased on consignment.
(2) 
Goods purchased for sale hereunder. The inventory mentioned in this Subsection G shall not include goods ordered in contemplation of conducting a sale regulated hereunder. Any unusual purchase or additions to the stock of goods of the business thereby affected within 30 days before the filing of an application hereunder shall be deemed to be of such character.
A. 
Each applicant for a permit under this article shall pay to the Commissioner of the Revenue at the time the application is filed a license tax or permit fee, either or both, as follows:
(1) 
If, within one month after the close of the year for which all required City license taxes have become due and payable, a person holding any one or more of such licenses should elect not to renew it or them but desires the privilege of selling whatever goods he may have had on hand January 1, such person, upon submitting his application to the Commissioner of the Revenue, shall pay a license tax of $30 or $0.20 per $100, whichever is greater, of the retail value of such goods as were on hand January 1 and shown on the complete and detailed inventory required by § 116-7.
(2) 
Any person applying for a permit to conduct any sale contemplated herein that will be completely concluded prior to 12:00 midnight December 31, and who has paid all lawful license taxes required of such person for the calendar year in which such sale will be completely concluded, shall, upon submitting his application to the Commissioner of the Revenue, pay a permit fee of $40.
[Amended 11-13-1990]
B. 
Any such person, as is described in Subsection A(2) of this section, applying for a renewal permit hereunder that shall expire on or before midnight December 31 shall submit to the Commissioner of the Revenue with his renewal application a renewal permit fee of $30.
[Amended 11-13-1990]
C. 
Where any sale contemplated herein commences in the latter part of one calendar year and extends into the early part of the following calendar year, the license tax for that portion extending into the new calendar year shall be based upon Subsection A(1) of this section.
Upon being issued a permit hereunder for a going-out-of-business sale, the applicant therefor shall surrender to the Commissioner of the Revenue all business licenses he may hold at that time which are applicable to the location and goods covered by the application for a permit under this article.
Each permit issued hereunder shall be upon the following terms:
A. 
Permit period. The permit shall authorize the sale described in the application for a period of not more than 30 days following the issuance thereof.
B. 
Renewal procedure. The Commissioner of the Revenue shall renew a permit for one period of time only, such period to be in addition to the 30 days permitted in the original permit, and not to exceed 30 days, when he finds that:
(1) 
Facts exist justifying the renewal;
(2) 
The permit holder has filed an application for renewal; and
(3) 
The permit holder has submitted with the application for renewal a revised inventory showing the items listed on the original inventory remaining unsold and not listing any goods not included in the original application and inventory; and any application for a permit covering any goods previously inventoried as required hereunder shall be deemed to be an application for renewal, whether presented by the original applicant or by any other person.
C. 
Type of sale. The permit hereunder shall authorize only one type of sale at the location named in the application and shall authorize only the sale of goods described in the inventory attached to the application.
No permit hereunder shall be assigned or transferred.
Any person issued a permit hereunder shall, in addition to all other applicable provisions of this Code:
A. 
Make no additions whatsoever, during the period of the permitted sale, to the stock of goods set forth in the inventory attached to the application for permit.
B. 
Refrain from employing any untrue, deceptive or misleading advertising.
C. 
Conduct the permitted sale in strict conformity with any advertising or holding out incident thereto.
D. 
Keep available at the place of sale a duplicate copy of the inventory submitted with the application and present such duplicate to City officials upon request.
E. 
Keep any other goods separate and apart from the goods listed in the filed inventory as being objects of sale and make such distinction clear to the public by placing tags on all inventoried goods in and about the place of sale, apprising the public of the status of all such goods.
It shall be unlawful for any person to violate or fail to comply with any provision of this article.
[Adopted 3-13-2017[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed former Art. II, Garage and/or Yard Sales, adopted 11-27-1978; amended in its entirety 10-25-1982.
For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
GARAGE AND/OR YARD SALE
Any sale operated out of a single-family dwelling, a two-family dwelling or a multifamily dwelling including but not limited to a sale on the premises thereof being of two hours' or more duration.
GOODS
Any goods, wares, merchandise or any other property capable of being the object of a sale.
The following general operating requirements shall apply to all garage and/or yard sales:
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to hold more than two sales at the same location within one year.
B. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to conduct such sale for longer than two consecutive days.
C. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to conduct such a sale on Sunday.
A. 
No garage and/or yard sale shall be held until the person conducting such sale shall have first obtained a sale permit, and paid a fee in the amount of $5, from the office of the Director of Finance.
B. 
Application for more than two permits for the same address within one year shall be reason for the denial of the permit by the Director of Finance.
C. 
Such permit shall be conspicuously displayed upon the premises during the time of the sale.
A. 
Directional signage for permitted yard sales shall be in compliance with the following sections and requirements.
(1) 
Up to three directional signs total may be installed directing customers to a garage or yard sale. No more than two signs may be installed along a priority route as defined in this section, and no more than two may be on a secondary route as defined in this section; however, between both the priority route and secondary route, only three total signs may be displayed.
(2) 
Directional signs displayed along the priority route or secondary route must be within the street right-of-way; however, the garage or yard sale permit holder must obtain written permission to display a sign in front of a residence even if the signage is on the street right-of-way.
(3) 
One additional sign may be installed at the residence where the garage or yard sale is being held.
(4) 
All directional signs must say "GARAGE SALE" or " YARD SALE" and must include the street address of the sale and the sale date(s).
(5) 
No directional garage or yard sale sign may be larger than 18 inches by 24 inches and must be firmly affixed to stakes or posts driven into the ground so that the top of the signage is no more than 30 inches above finished grade.
(6) 
No garage or yard sale signage may be displayed until the first day of the permitted sale.
(7) 
All garage or yard sale signage must be removed by 6:00 p.m. on the last day of the sale.
(8) 
No directional signage may be attached to utility poles, traffic light poles, traffic cabinets, etc.
(9) 
Any directional signage that does not comply with the previous sections, or that interferes with the safe sight line and visibility at an intersection, may be removed by the Galax Police Department or another designee of the City Manager's office.
(10) 
Priority routes are listed as:
(a) 
Glendale Road along with Cliffview, Creekview, Larkspur and Cranberry.
(b) 
Meadow Street.
(c) 
South Main Street.
(d) 
Main Street (East Webster, Grayson, Oldtown, Center and Lafayette).
(e) 
Monroe Street.
(f) 
Lafayette Street.
(g) 
Calhoun Street.
(h) 
Fries Road.
(i) 
Mountain View Road.
(j) 
Greenville Road.
(k) 
Nuckolls Curve Road.
(l) 
McArthur Street.
(m) 
West Stuart Drive.
(n) 
Poplar Knob Road.
(o) 
Country Club Lane.
(p) 
Stockyard Road.
(q) 
Kenbrook Drive.
(r) 
Armory Road.
(s) 
Chestnut Drive.
(t) 
Branch Street.
(u) 
Poplar Grove Road.
(v) 
Prospect Avenue.
(w) 
Fox Run.
(x) 
Taylorwood Road.
(y) 
Parkwood Drive.
(z) 
Waugh Drive.
(aa) 
Academy Drive.
(11) 
Secondary routes are listed as:
(a) 
Residential streets not aforementioned.
(b) 
Dead end streets.
All violations of this article shall constitute a Class 3 misdemeanor and punished by a fine of up to $500, in accordance with § 18.2-11, Code of Virginia.