Urbana City Council Sends Container Ordinance Back to Committee

The Urbana City Council will take a little more time to work on guidelines for how long people can leave portable storage containers outdoors on their property.

These bins may hold items waiting for pickup, or they hold household items while a home is undergoing renovations. Whatever their contents, Urbana Planning Manager Robert Myers said the containers have created eyesores for residents and delays for commuters.

"Say if they're there for months and months sitting on the grass for instance, or if people come dropping them off on the street," Myers said. "Sometimes they can block fire hydrants, and block people's views pulling out of their driveway, be difficult for traffic flow and circulation around the neighborhood."

Myers said council member talked with several container storage companies to find out how well they could adjust to the regulations.

"We didn't want to provide some standards that just would not work out at all for the container companies," he said. "We want to work with them. A couple of container companies in fact said should you adopt standards; just let us know what they are and we'll tell any customers who call us from Urbana."

Tuesday night, council members looked at new guidelines what would allow the bins to be left on a street corner for up to 72 hours and on a driveway for up to 30 days, with the option of a 30-day extension.

But Alderwoman Diane Marlin said she has found from her own experience that 60 days may not be enough when a home improvement project is involved. She wanted the rules to be changed to give residents more leeway in keeping storage containers on their driveways.

Council members voted to send the storage container measure back to committee. Myers said the language may be changed to tie usage of the bins to the length of a home building permit.