Shipping containers in Cranbrook have been given a reprieve.
City council decided on Monday, February 4, to stop advancing a bylaw that would prohibit shipping containers in all but a few zones of the city, and limit it to a maximum of six per parcel.
Instead, City of Cranbrook staff will draft new zoning regulations regarding the use and placement of shipping containers with input from local business.
At a January 21 public hearing, a dozen business people attended to ask council to reconsider the ban on shipping containers, colloquially known as "sea cans". A local supplier of sea cans estimated that almost half the businesses in Cranbrook outside the downtown core use shipping containers for storage.
After hearing from five business owners, councillors and city staff said they had no idea sea cans were so widely used.