Portable On-Demand Storage Bill Still in Committee
Nearly a month ago Ald. Lyda Krewson (D-28) introduced Board Bill 191, relating to Portable On-Demand Storage better know by the trademark name, PODS. The basic idea, as I understand it, is to require a permit to place these on the street and call for fines if they are not removed within the timeframe of the permit. Seems logical and similar to the procedures for having say a construction dumpster on the street.
For weeks the bill has been stalled in the Streets, Traffic and Refuse Committee where not everyone was on the same page. You see, debates on the floor of the Board of Aldermen are rare — any differences on legislation gets worked out in committee hearings which are, of course, open to the public. Truth be told, a number of differences probably get worked out via email and phone calls that we, the public, are not privy to. Still, much of the face-to-face time between the aldermen does seem to take place in the committee meetings. Look for a revised version of this bill before the committee soon, possibly as early as next week. [Note: it is on the schedule for today but I understand the committee will not hear this bill as revisions are not yet ready.]
You likely say, “who cares?” Or, BFD. Well, to some it is a big deal when they’ve had to stare at a storage box across the street for weeks on end. But this brings up an important point. City governance is not just the exciting/controversial things — the BJC/Forest Park Lease, the Ballpark Village or a new riverfront proposal. No, city government is pretty mundane and often about the little details that really have little impact on the majority of residents.
If you’ve read enough of my posts you know I relish the details, but I’m also concerned about the big picture. Currently we have 28 aldermen trying to go at it alone in their section of the city with virtually nobody at city hall plotting an overall vision or course. At the ward or city level it is simply about the projects, the ribbon cutting, the photo op. I’m glad to see Ald. Krewson continuing to push for this portable storage legislation because this is a good example of quality of life details that are important. But I’ll be really happy when the city begins to seriously look at a vision for the city and passes some new zoning to compliment the land use plan approved in 2005.
Ald. Krewson is up for re-election next Spring.
Instead of a permit, how about a time limit, just like if you park your car and don’t move it for so many days(5) you get a ticket. Perhaps a three day limit would work. Making a permit necessary will give a ton of people unnecessary tickets and cause people a lot of unnecessary financial hardship and trouble. If there is a time limit, the POD company will be aware of this and can caution the customer.
Besides, I would rather see a POD than a lot of these ugly unwashed cars I see cluttering up our streets. Lets be cautionary in our implementation of new regulations on our citizens.
actually, when I got a dumpster a couple years ago *I* had to go get the damned permit.
which required taking time off work, going to city hall, getting sent to 3 different offices before someone finally sent me to the right place, etc.
But I agree, SOMETHING should be set up to regulate the PODS. I had one sitting on my street for at least a month, and it had also been placed more than 12″ from the curb which put it out slightly into the “traffic lane” bit of the street, which caused all sorts of problems with traffic because nobody seems to know how wide their cars are (people would STOP in the street for traffic rather than just drive by the thing – swerving halfway into the oncoming lane to go “around” it).
There’s a perfect example of this in Dogtown. There have been two pods outside of the house at the corner of Louisville and West Park (the PODS are on the West Park side of the house) for at least 4 or 5 months, it seems. Ugly.
I personally think PODS and large Dumpsters should be banned from arterial streets. They periodically appear and reappear along the north side of Arsenal across from Benton Park, which carries an awful lot of traffic considering its width. That’s because it’s a major I-55 access route.
Of course, I guess if you spend $250,000 to $800,000 on a house, you get a break sometimes.
I’m biased – I’m a happy PODS customer, having used them to move from Denver to St. Louis. It took me a month to pack in Denver, yes, with the POD “parked” on the street next to my house, and yes, I did need to get a permit – no big deal. Fortunately, my new place has a driveway, so it was off-street / in my front yard while I unloaded. (Got to meet several neighbors when it arrived and we all watched the loading device get it off the truck.)
Bigger picture, I think they’re going to become a more common sight on streets everywhere, simply because they do what they promise to do. I do think they should be both regulated and limited. They should not be used for extended on-steet storage, like for a remodelling project. They should be allowed to be dropped, loaded or unloaded, then picked up and hauled away. It makes more sense to store your stuff at the PODS site (where it’s secure) than it does to leave it sitting on the street where it can be broken into or hit, plus it doesn’t cost that much to have it hauled. What’s “fair”? Probaly 2-4 weeks max to pack it (especially if it’s a 16′ one like I had), but it should only take a week to unpack it, since you’re going from a small space into a much bigger one.
Denver’s permits took into consideration the traffic volume on the street. Since I lived on a corner and neither street had much traffic, it really wasn’t much of an obstacle. Aand are they ugly? Yes, but they serve a need. Much like a dumpster, I don’t really like looking at one outside my window or driving around them, but as long as they’re not semi-permanent, I’m a huge believer in “live and let live”.
We have used Door To Door Storage (http://www.doortodoor.com). Once advantage is that the smaller containers fit in a standard parking spot so *some* municipalities seem to care less (or we got lucky). Now we live in a house in the ‘burbs, and a neighbor who used one of the big PODS containers got cited.