Cd'A city council OK's containers for now

COEUR d’ALENE — Metal transport containers used as storage units in some Coeur d’Alene neighborhoods won’t be run out of town on a rail any time soon.

City council members decided against a zoning code amendment last week to outlaw storage containers in residential neighborhoods where they are often used as storage units.

“Their primary use, their main use, is on cargo ships,” said city planner Mike Behary. “They drop them in people’s backyards to try to use them for storage buildings.”

The steel containers, often seen being transported on semi-trailer trucks, rail cars and ships, have become popular in Coeur d’Alene backyards because they can hold a lot of stuff, and cost just a couple thousand bucks.

Current city code does not address shipping containers as accessory storage buildings, Behary said. The proposed code would prohibit using them as storage buildings in residential neighborhoods.

The push began because some people consider the big, ugly containers an eyesore, Behary said.

“Part aesthetics, part safety,” Behary said. “If a kid gets locked in one of those there’s no panic bar to get out, there’s no ventilation for them to breathe, it’s kind of a safety hazard too.”

Although no members of the public attended the public hearing, word of the zone change wasn’t well received by some council members who preferred laissez faire over unfair.

“This is sort of a thorn in me, telling people what they can’t do again,” Woody McEvers said.

Shipping containers are a recycled, waterproof, foolproof way to keep things out of the weather and under lock and key, McEvers said.

“I guess if you painted it to where you didn’t have to see it,” McEvers said. “I look at them as a recyclable, cool thing that’s been used for many different things.”

And they are long-lasting and efficient, McEvers said.

“And now we’re telling people, no, you can’t do that,” he said. “I like to think we can keep the doors open.”

McEvers asked council members to scratch the prohibition of containers from the latest batch of code amendments.

Most council members agreed.

“I guess grandfathering could be a possibility there,” Mayor Steve Widmyer said.

Council member Kiki Miller questioned the justification for outlawing containers.

“I don’t know where this comes from, what’s driving this,” Miller said. “Someone could build a really ugly storage shed as well.”

Council scrapped the proposal to outlaw shipping containers in residential yards for now, sending the amendment back to the planning department to be readdressed at another meeting.

“There’s going to be another round of amendments,” Behary said.