As part of its work session Tuesday, members of the Ogden City Council fielded a discussion on the use of shipping and cargo containers as residential accessory buildings.

The discussion came about as an initiative filed by Council Member Ken Richey, who said he brought it forward because of the growing popularity of shipping containers being repurposed for various uses on residential properties.

“We do see a little bit of a trend with this happening across the country,” he said. “It seems like there are innovative ways to do this and the markets are moving that way. If it exists, it makes sense to try and update our code to make sure we can put our stamp on how we want it to be allowed.”

While residents are allowed to place shipping containers on their properties already, the current city ordinance states they must have another more traditional structure built around them.

“Our code, the way it reads, didn’t make a lot of sense to me to say, ‘Let’s have this nice, sound structure and put a building around it that would be weaker than the actual internal structure,'” Richey said. “If there’s a viable way to make them look good and fit in the neighborhood with siding and whatever, it seems to make sense to me.”

Ogden Senior Policy Analyst Steve Burton gave a presentation on how people are repurposing shipping containers.

“These are offices, man caves, she-sheds or whatever you want to call them, that have been converted into backyard structures,” he said.

Other uses have included tool sheds, workshops and even small dwellings and living spaces.

He noted that several area municipalities have already begun allowing containers as accessory structures, including Weber County, South Ogden, Lehi, Salt Lake City, Monticello and Green River. Burton also said common requirements he’s seen for allowing containers as accessory structures include applying siding, using roofing to match aesthetics, no-stacking statutes and compliance with other existing ordinances addressing accessory structures.

Council Vice Chair Richard Hyer said there will be several considerations to make before putting an ordinance change before the board.

“I really think that there’s a space for this in our ordinance to allow it, but we do have to talk about how they are used,” he said. “Is a (concrete foundation) slab required even though they have a solid floor underneath them? That might be a discussion point. Square footage limit? Are they considered a temporary or permanent building for setback requirements? Is there a height limit? Are we going to require they have a pitched roof so they look like the house? … Are they allowed to be used as an ADU (accessory dwelling unit)? What if utilities are installed? There’s a whole lot of things that need to be discussed to make this work. I think it can, but we’re going to have to go through all of those things.”

Council Member Bart Blair said he’s had some personal experience with old containers being utilized for accessory structures.

“I’ve stayed in a storage container up in Bear Lake,” he said. “Somebody had one at their house and that’s what they had in the back. It had electricity. It had a little hotplate — it didn’t have a kitchen — but it did have a bathroom. … It was very well done.”

Blair said that he would be interested in seeing the city discuss the matter further.

“I think there’s a place for it in our ordinance,” he said. “I think we can work through the rest.”

Burton said the next steps are for planning officials to come back with a plan on how the ordinance could be implemented.

As the discussion item was part of the Tuesday work session, no official action was taken.