By Chad Ingram

Published Nov. 3 2016

After months of revisions AlgonquinHighlands council has passed a bylaw regulating the use of shippingcontainers as storage buildings in the township.

“Are we done with this yet?” askedReeve Carol Moffatt as council prepared to pass what was the fourthdraft of the bylaw at its Nov. 3 meeting.

Councillors began discussing theregulation of shipping containers in the spring after the buildingdepartment received complaints of the structures being used onseveral properties in the municipality.

The bylaw permits the structures asstorage facilities not dwellings.

The evolving draft bylaw was discussedby council at a number of meetings including a public meeting inDorset in August attended by about a dozen residents some of whomprovided input to council.

Business owners in particular seemedconcerned about limiting the number of shipping containers permittedon commercial properties.

The bylaw allows shipping containersas well as the bodies of tractor trailers or straight truck boxes tobe used as storage buildings in the following zones: rural (RU)highway commercial (C1) general commercial (C2) recreationalcommercial (R3) general industrial (M1) extractive industrial –pits (M2) extractive industrial – pits and quarries (M2A) andwaste disposal industrial (M3).

It limits the number of containers perproperty to two except in cases of waste disposal areas andcommercial self-storage facilities.

Containers must be located 100 metresfrom the high-water mark and a minimum of five metres from otherstructures.

An addition to the draft that wasfinally passed by council on Nov. 3 was that the containers can beoutfitted with electricity so long as that electrical work is doneto code.

The regulations of the bylaw apply toexisting containers.

“Anyone who currently has one needsto remove it or apply for a zoning permit” Moffatt said. “Theyare not being grandfathered.”