Beaufort County committee asks staff to draft code allowing shipping containers for agricultural use

The Beaufort County Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 3 asked staff to draft ordinance language to allow shipping containers and similar units to be used as structures for active agricultural purposes, and directed that the draft include limits on size, setbacks, screening and the number permitted.

Planning staff told the committee that current community development code provisions — notably an accessory-structures rule and an architectural-standard prohibition — bar the use of shipping containers as primary or accessory structures. "Shipping containers, as structures are not permitted in our community development code," a planning staff member said, citing section 4.2.20 and the separate architectural standards that prohibit use of containers "as a primary or accessory structure in all zoning districts." The staff member said limited waivers have been granted in the past for production uses such as mushroom cultivation but that the code lacks explicit, consistent language for agricultural exemptions.

Committee members pressed how such an exemption would work in practice. One member asked whether the county should simply treat a retrofitted container as a building material governed by building code rather than regulate it separately: "Why are we even regulating this anyway? Could we just adopt the International Building Code we adopted in 2021 and let it be a building material along with the agricultural use?" the member asked. Planning staff replied that an agriculture exemption would need clear parameters — "setback, screening, size, number, location" — and that staff would draft language accordingly.

The committee reached consensus that staff should return with a draft ordinance that would explicitly allow shipping containers for defined agricultural uses and propose standards (setbacks, screening, size and number) for where and how they can be used. The draft will be brought back to the Natural Resources Committee for further debate and possible recommendation to full council.

The committee did not adopt a final ordinance at the meeting; members limited action to direction for staff to prepare code language and recommended that staff include guidance that distinguishes storage/production uses on legitimate farms from the ad hoc placement of containers in neighborhoods.