A proposed change to the Bayfield land use code to deal with portable storage containers and temporary uses has too many problems as written, town trustees decided on April 22.
After considerable discussion, they sent it back to town staff for more work.
"The planning commission spent a lot of time on this," Town Manager Chris La May said. "We tried to identify most of the temporary uses (that could be an issue), whether it should require a permit, how long the use can be allowed, which zoning district would it be allowed in, are other permits required."
La May said he has an application from someone to operate an ice cream truck in town. "The way this (proposed code amendment) is currently written, my interpretation is it wouldn't be allowed," he advised.
Allowable temporary uses would not include fireworks stands, he said. Special events would be exempted from the regulation.
"The one we spent the most time on was temporary portable storage," La May said, especially the metal shipping containers commonly called Zircons.
As proposed, they'd be allowed for no more than 30 days on a residential property. "On non-residential, they could be allowed longer with architectural compatibility," he said.
He said he drove around town to map the location of storage containers already in town, and what zoning district they are in. "If you move forward on this, they would have a year to be in compliance," he said.
"There are several businesses using Zircons. There will be some push-back about limiting them, especially in commercial zoneS," he said and suggested that part of the regulation could be set aside "for more investigation and maybe kick it back to the planning commission."
No members of the public came to comment on the proposed regulation, but trustees had lots to say.
"The land use code prohibits an ice cream truck?" trustee Ed Morlan asked.
"It talks about use by right in commercial (zones) but not residential," La May said.
Trustee Michelle Nelson asked about other mobile vendors selling things like steaks, seafood, or even Girl Scout cookies. "Maybe that's not what we want," she said.
"Don't even try to prohibit Girl Scout cookies," La May responded.
Morlan persisted, "How is a moving vehicle a land use issue?"
The issue hasn't actually come up, La May said.
Mayor Rick Smith commented about the draft regulation, "You put something in one way, and there are a lot of unintended consequences."
Attorney Lindsey Nicholson said, "The issue is food carts that are in one place for a time. It seems like the ice cream truck would fall under a transient vendor business license."
Trustee Rachel Davenport speculated that a distinction between mobile food vendors and stationary food carts would solve the issue.
Smith moved the discussion back to portable storage containers.
Nelson said, "I'm concerned about the definition of portable on-demand storage units that don't have a foundation. That can be a lot more than Zircons. How are we distinguishing that?"
La May noted the regulation "says other than an accessory building or a shed."
Morlan responded, "How do you distinguish between that and a Zircon? It's ugly?"
Nelson noted that sheds can be put on a trailer and moved.
Smith suggested a shed matches the buildings around it. "A Zircon doesn't match anything," he said. "If you could put a facade around it..."
Nelson questioned whether the town should be dealing with this, or if it should be homeowner associations. She said her HOA wouldn't allow a Zircon.
Not everyone has an HOA, new trustee Matt Salka said.
"A person doesn't need a permit now to put a Zircon in their yard?" Morlan asked.
"The code is silent on it," La May said. "It's been done numerous times because no one has said you can't do it." But he said he hasn't gotten any complaints about existing storage containers.
Marshal Joe McIntyre said the complaints he has received generally involve transient people selling something in a way that's very pushy.
In his written staff report, La May said the Town Code and Land Use Code sometimes have conflicting provisions on these issues, or they don't address them.
Trustees continued the discussion to their May 6 meeting.
