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MAKING THE RULES
Industry’s Growing Pains Lead To New Regulations
By David Lucas 
Like Mrs. O’Leary’s cow that kicked over the lantern and started Chicago’s devastating fire in 1871, there’s a woman in St. Louis, Mo., who may be responsible for starting a potential meltdown in the mobile selfstorage industry. The woman in question was a mobile storage customer who rented a container and left it on her lawn for nine months, causing a firestorm of complaints by neighbors. The complaints went directly to the St. Louis City Council chambers.
“It happened to be located in an affluent neighborhood that overlooked a major park, and the neighbors complained to the city council that it obstructed the view of their park,” says Randy Weissman, president of the Mobile Self Storage Association (MS-SA) who operates Storage Banc in St. Louis.
Responding to citizens’ complaints, the local politicians set out to devise regulations that would not only control how and when mobile storage containers can be used, but would also bring additional revenue into the city’s coffers. The city’s new ordinance restricts the amount of time as well as the places containers can be located at residences in addition to requiring a permit and assessing a fee.
In the “me-too” world of municipalities, the movement to pass ordinances restricting portable containers has spread from coast-to-coast. Weissman, who follows the issue closely via the Internet, identified 10 states where communities are considering mobile storage regulations. He says all the ordinances have similar language. Some counties in Florida, headquarters of several mobile storage companies, have passed ordinances governing the containers.
“There are a number cities in the last 12 months that, because of complaints of neighbors, have begun to address the issue of regulating people who think they can just put a box on their property and leave it there for a long time,” says Gary Crawford, chief operating officer of Hide-Away Self Storage of Sarasota, Fla.
Three counties in the Washington, D.C., area have been working on proposed measures for about a year. “Fairfax County contacted other municipalities to try to draw out the experiences of some other areas that have regulations to see how they’ve handled it because it’s a new industry,” says Aubrey Stowell of Chantilly, Va.-based BoxCart. So what does all of this mean for the mobile self storage industry?
Popularity Draws Attention
The growing popularity of mobile self storage has caught the attention of municipal officials, who undoubtedly receive citizen complaints about the use—or abuse—of the containers. “We are probably going to come up on the radar screen because mobile storage is a new thing in the last 10 years,” says Crawford. “Now, we’re getting more attention because more people are popping up in this business.”
As municipalities review other ordinances to see how they might fit in a particular local community, they appear to focus on some common issues. “The three counties we primarily do business in are having certain setback provisions put in and the length of time a container can be placed at the site,” Stowell says. Fairfax County is considering a 30- to 90- day limit on containers at single-family detached residences and from three to 30 days for single-family attached housing.
“The zoning staff has proposed certain zoning amendments to incorporate mobile self storage for which there is no category prior to the last five years,” Stowell says. The county held several public meetings where industry representative provided input. Ultimately, the County Board of Supervisors will make the final decision on the extent of the regulations, which could include the use of permits.
The Naperville, Ill., city council in February considered an amendment to the municipal code for on-site mobile storage container regulations. Property owners currently are allowed to house on-site mobile storage containers for 14 days per calendar year. The city staff, after examining the issue and looking at what surrounding cities do, recommended rules for the location of containers, the duration of stay, and the number of storage units allowed at any one time.
In Washoe County, Nev., storage or shipping containers may be placed on a residential property as long as it is the user’s primary residence. Under certain circumstances, residents may be allowed to place a storage container temporarily on their property during construction activities to secure building materials, tools, etc. Storage or shipping containers must meet the setback requirements, and if the containers are on wheels, the wheels must be removed. Finally, any commercial advertising on the container must be removed.
Private Property Issues
“A lot of municipalities pass similar ordinances on where you can keep it, how long you can keep it, and whether or not you can keep it on private property,” Weissman says. “Most ordinances do not require a permit fee; they just restrict the length of time that it can be on the property and require some sort of permit.”
In St. Louis and other older cities where many homes don’t have driveways, municipalities allow containers to be placed at designated parking areas in “On major thoroughfares, it is a bigger deal from a safety standpoint.” He adds that containers can remain on site for seven days and can be delivered twice in a year to the same address
While some regulations are needed to prevent abuses, Weissman is bothered by rules affecting private property. “It started on the street but the disturbing thing is it spread to private property and what a person can or can’t do on their own driveway or yard. I think that’s going too far,” he says. Another burning issue for Weissman is that most of the new laws do not discriminate between commercial and consumer use. “Your local Wal-Mart® store that has an ocean-going container and puts it in the parking lot—that strictly is in violation of the law without buying a permit for $25,” he says. “It hasn’t come up yet, but someday it will.”
Weissman feels the city treats mobile storage containers differently than other containers such as dumpsters. “If the container is part of a construction project, it’s no different than a roll-off dumpster,” he says. “I don’t think they make you pay $25 to get a roll-off dumpster dropped off at a house, but cities are so strapped for cash and they look at it as a way to make money. Municipalities already have laws on the books to handle those and this should not be treated any differently. They’re trying to invent new laws when they already have something on their books that covers it.
Getting Involved In The Process
While there may be a temptation for municipalities to enact “one size fits all” legislation modeled after other locations around the country, city officials and industry representatives alike have found these types of laws are not usually practical in their localities. “In the northern Virginia area where you’re dealing with six million people and it’s very dense, their needs are going to be different than a rural area 30 miles outside of Atlanta,” Stowell says. “One size fits all probably would not work.”
Cities have shown a willingness to work with the industry in drafting regulations. St. Louis officials initially wanted residents to acquire permits directly from front of houses. “With a bigger container, it can be an obstruction to traffic depending on where it’s put,” Weissman says the city. “The original bill was going to force every customer to drive to the Department of Public Works and pick up a permit. That’s ridiculous,” Weissman says. An ingenious solution Weissman proposed was to allow his company to put up a $500 deposit with the city so he could order the permits for his customers before delivering the containers. The city faxes the permits to Storage Banc’s offices and the company delivers them with the containers and passes along the charge to the customers.
Weissman says the original ordinance in St. Louis stipulated a $25 fee per container for a certain period without consideration for the size of the box. However, he says Storage Banc’s containers are smaller than his competitor’s. “One small PODS container is two of mine, and one of their large ones is three of mine,” he explains. “So somebody could order a PODS and pay $25 and that same person would have to order three of my containers and pay $75. We had lot of discussion about keeping the economic playing field level and they ended up restricting it based on length.”
The current fee pertains to any number of containers adding up to approximately 16 feet, so the same fee would cover up to three small boxes or one large container, Weissman says. In addition, the city tiered the permits based on the number of days the package remains on the property. Weissman explains that it runs $10 for three days and $25 for more than three days up to seven. “I think it was a pretty fair deal and the city decided to work with business owners,” he says. “We all worked together very nicely to make a fair bill for everyone.”
Industry input has also been key in crafting the Washington, D.C.-area rules. “They really hadn’t talked to anyone in the industry,” Stowell says. “When they made the first formal meeting, the staff notified me and then I became involved from there on. [Mobile storage] is popular in the area and they’re trying to understand the needs of the customer. They clearly have taken our input under consideration. I think they’ve done fair job addressing that. I wholeheartedly concur with some of regulations they are going to incorporate.”
Crawford adds, “Most municipalities are not looking to squeeze business away, they’re just trying to reign in some of the excesses or abuses. Cities are open to work with us to craft legislation so it does not allow a tenant to just store a box on their property and at the same time allows flexibility for people who never intended to do that. We’d rather deliver it and within 10 days, give them a chance to load it and pick it up and take it away.”
Model Legislation
The MS-SA is developing suggested language for model legislation that could be proposed whenever a state or municipality considers mobile storage regulations. The goal is to minimize the restrictions on the mobile self storage industry while eliminating community concerns.
“We want to be proactive, and if legislation comes into an area, we want to work with municipalities,” Crawford says. “We don’t want it to be us versus them. We’re trying to present some boilerplate type of some legislation people could modify for their particular purposes.”
As a new industry, mobile selfstorage does not have the political clout and strength in numbers to lobby at higher levels of government. “We don’t have the funds to go to state legislatures,” Weissman says. “It really takes a grassroots effort—somebody to champion the cause in individual states.”
As bigger players with legal staffs and other resources enter the industry, more influence can be exerted. In the meantime, mobile storage companies can work at local levels to try to keep measures livable. “You work with various government officials and try to come up with a compromise bill,” Weissman says. On the statewide level, he suggests finding sympathetic state legislators and making them aware of the different municipal bills being introduced. If a legislator were to sponsor a statewide regulation, it would supersede some of more restrictive municipal regulations.
Industry representatives believe mobile companies can take steps to police themselves and educate their elected representatives, residents, and customers. “If my neighbor had a container sitting in the driveway, I would find it unsightly and I would complain,” Weissman notes. “That’s why the rules are there so it benefits everyone.”
One important element in combating abuses is to set forth terms and conditions in the rental agreement. “As an association, we should recommend some type of clause limiting the amount of time a container can be kept at a customer’s house,” Weissman says. “Our contract states that if after three days a neighbor makes a complaint, we have the right to pick up the container and bring it into the warehouse. That is something I would suggest any operator put in. If they get a complaint from a neighbor or city council member, they can contractually pick up the container without putting themselves in a legal position with the customer.”
Once the county finalizes its ordinance, BoxCart’s customers will get a copy of the new ordinance. “I’ll probably have an exhibit that will go with the agreement that spells out whatever the final ordinance is,” Stowell says.
“Maybe we can police ourselves and be good corporate citizens versus having to be regulated,” Weissman says. The St. Louis operator with the problem customer was called by several people about container that caused the uproar. “Had he reacted sooner and picked up the container, I don’t think we would have had anything passed from the regulation standpoint.”
Although mobile self storage is a relatively new industry with its share of growing pains, it can learn a lot from it’s “big brother.” Crawford likens mobile storage to the self storage industry 25 or 30 years ago. “We’re finding our way on this stuff,” he says.
Unlike the inferno caused by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, there’s still time to save the mobile self storage industry from regulatory peril.
David Lucas is a freelance editor and writer based in Phoneix, Arizona, and the News Editor of Mini Storage Messenger magazine.
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