City Council will revisit ordinance

Weiser City Council members agreed to revisit and possibly amend  an ordinance they approved regulating the placement of temporary storage containers.
 Council member Layna Hafer said issues have come up with portions of the ordinance that were not apparent when the council approved it in January of 2017.
 One provision, in particular, dictates that businesses have to place a temporary storage container in back or on the side of a building with a setback requirement.
 The problem is not all businesses in the downtown area – or for that matter residences around town – have the space to place containers that meets the requirements, she said.
 Hafer suggested the ordinance go back to a city committee for review, possibly with the intent of making it more business friendly.
 Right now, the ordinance doesn’t make any exceptions, but the city council might want the ability to be able to review situations on a case-by-case basis, she said.
 The council spent a lot of time coming up with the ordinance. Since then, some things that were not considered at the time have surfaced.
 Council member Larry Hogg said it was a difficult ordinance to hammer out to get right and took many months and revisions.
 “My preference would be to look at the whole thing and come back to us with recommendations,” he said. City council members and the former city attorney worked for months on the ordinance through several revisions.
 The ordinance went through a couple of drafts over a 10-month period after it was first introduced in 2016. Members of the city council, some of whom are no longer in office, disagreed on some of the language and penalties in earlier versions.
 The regulations were drafted to provide guidelines on the placement of temporary storage units in the city. City officials said they were becoming used more and more and there were no regulations governing where they went and for how long.
 The ordinance requires a permit from the city building official prior to placement of a temporary storage building on a property in the city. The permit will allow the storage container to sit on a homeowner’s property for a maximum of 90 days.
 The ordinance defines a portable storage structure as one that does not have a permanent foundation or footing and includes cargo containers, portable storage containers, truck trailers, construction trailers and bulk solid waste containers.
 The ordinance requires that a cargo container placed on a city property with a permit will not exceed 40 feet in length. The container must be located to the rear or side of the residence and must set back at least five feet from the side and rear property lines.
 The penalty for exceeding the 90 days or without a permit faces an infraction and a fine of $25 per day, which is far less than what was in the draft version.