News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A growing west coast trend in shipping container homes will not come to Sparta.
That after the Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance on first reading Thursday night regulating the use of shipping containers. Codes Officer Mike O’Neal said several people have requested making homes out of them.
“We’ve been approached by various people over the last three of four years and if you’ve seen this do it yourself channel where they take these storage containers some people make homes out of them or make other storage,” O’Neal said. “They’re not manufactured for that.”
O’Neal said the shipping containers are acceptable when used for construction and storage on owned property. O’Neal said the code will not allow for the cargo to be stacked, as well.
“Basically something that would look like a ship yard or somebody try to convert them into a home,” O’Neal said. “They don’t have the proper windows, doors. That little bit of code is going to cover anything we need.”
Mayor Jeff Young said the city also once used shipping containers for storage, but finally as a body decided to move away from them to better the image of the city. City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the situation arose when he saw shipping containers disordered at a construction site.
“It looks poor on the contractor and the person doing the construction,” Hennessee said. “I came to Mike and told him that we need to start looking to see what other people have on the books before people try to start making houses out of these things.”
