DeKalb is again considering regulating garage sales within the city, after at least one person has complained about a neighbor.

City Clerk Donna Johnson fields complaints of residents having sales every weekend. Most complaints are filed with the clerk’s office on condition of anonymity at the caller’s request, Johnson said.

Now the city council has discussed limiting the number of garage sales a household can have each year.

Though it was not on Monday’s city council meeting agenda, 2nd Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen said he expects a draft of an ordinance soon.

Without a limiting ordinance, Johnson said all she can do is advise the callers to contact their alderman.

Povlsen has received a complaint from one resident in his ward so far.

“This tends to be a problem every year,” Povlsen said.

Johnson said residents complain that the frequent sales are a burden because of increased traffic, parked cars blocking driveways and shoppers walking across neighbors’ lawns.

Johnson said she also has received reports that some residents are buying items and reselling them.

“When you are buying things and reselling things, it becomes a business,” she said.

Johnson said the city does not want to ban all garage sales.

“We’re only after the blatant abusers,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she shops garage sales and enjoys them. However, she said, she knows some residents are having them regularly because of her experience shopping the sales.

Johnson first addressed the issue in 2001 when she drafted an ordinance that would have limited DeKalb households to three sales a year, each two days long.

Violation of the proposed ordinance would have resulted in fines between $100 and $500.

The council chose not to enact that 2001 proposed ordinance.