City wants to put hold on shipping container houses for now

The Cape Girardeau City Council may decide Monday whether to impose a 90-day moratorium on issuing building permits for construction projects that use shipping containers as building materials.

At its meeting, the council is scheduled to vote on all three readings of the proposed ordinance to allow the moratorium to take effect sooner.

Normally, the council takes two meetings to give final approval to an ordinance.

The measure would not apply to applications received before April 7, development services director Alex McElroy said.

Shipping containers so far have not been turned into residential or commercial structures in Cape Girardeau, city officials said.

But a developer has submitted plans to use shipping containers as building materials for a residential structure, according to McElroy.

The plans were submitted in February and still are being reviewed by city staff, he said.

"The developer has indicated an intent to do more shipping-container developments in the future," McElroy wrote in an agenda report to the council.

While the moratorium would not hold up the submitted development plan, it "would prevent future developments from receiving building permits until proper analysis is performed," he wrote.

The city's building codes do not address the use of shipping containers, McElroy said.

Several council members have asked the city staff to look at restricting or banning the use of such containers as building materials for residential or commercial developments, he said.

"There were a number of different concerns," McElroy said.

They include aesthetics, the effect on property values, structural integrity and whether shipping containers could pose health risks from the cargo they previously held, he said.

"There are a lot of communities regulating or banning them," McElroy said.

"A 90-day moratorium would allow staff more time to research and solicit feedback from interested parties," he wrote in the council agenda report.

Mayor Harry Rediger said he favors the moratorium. So does Ward 4 Councilman Robbie Guard.

Both men voiced concern Friday about the possible use of shipping containers as building materials.

Rediger and Guard said the construction is new to Cape Girardeau.

Rediger said he doesn't know about the quality of shipping containers.

The mayor said he wants the council to approve the moratorium so the city staff can "move ahead" with researching the issue.

Guard said the use of shipping containers as building materials deviates from current construction standards.

"There are a lot of people who aren't going to want these next to their homes," he said.

The councilman suggested shipping containers potentially could be considered in the same category as mobile homes in terms of structures "not constructed on site."

He voiced concern about the possibility of lead-based paint on such containers.

The major manufacturers of shipping containers are in Asian countries that may not have the same quality standards in effect in the United States, Guard said.

"I think it is prudent for us to understand this new concept," Guard said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641