Smyth County container rules: a silent county code and a town that wrote one

Smyth County's own code never names a shipping container, while the Town of Marion's code does: it bars shipping containers and storage pods from permanent storage inside town limits and allows them by special use permit for temporary uses. Which rule reaches your box depends on whether the parcel sits in the unincorporated county, in Marion, in Chilhowie or in Saltville, because each of the four answers to its own ordinance.

Silence in the county code neither clears a container nor forbids one. It leaves the county's Zoning Administrator to decide how a steel box fits the zoning ordinance's definitions. We sell and deliver containers; we do not pull permits, and nothing on this page is the county's answer or a town's.

Four governments answer for Smyth County ground

Smyth County has three incorporated towns, Marion, Chilhowie and Saltville, and the county zoning ordinance covers only the unincorporated territory outside them. A parcel inside a town line starts with that town. The table sorts the four.

Offices and numbers as each government published them when this page was written; they change, and the office's own word governs.

Appendix A has zoned the unincorporated county since 2002

Smyth County adopted county zoning in 2001, and the ordinance has been in force since 2002. Titled the Zoning Ordinance of Smyth County, Virginia and printed as Appendix A of the County Code, it sets its own reach in Section 1-2: "The provisions contained in this Ordinance shall apply to the unincorporated territory of Smyth County, Virginia."

The Municode copy the county links to is codified through an ordinance of December 11, 2025, and the zoning text amendments on the Planning Commission's January, July and August 2026 agendas concern communication towers and data centers, not accessory buildings or storage.

Zoning is not a given in this corner of Virginia. Wythe County's permit rules start from no adopted countywide zoning, and Bland County's container rules cover a zoned county with no towns inside it. Grayson County's zoning layer, a zoned county with towns of its own, is the closer match.

Appendix A sets nine districts: Agricultural (A), Agricultural/Rural (A/R), Residential (R), Commercial (C), Industrial (I), Conservation/Recreation (C/R), Conservation/Recreation - Public (C/R-P), Floodplain Management (FM) and Airport Safety (AS). A parcel in the Floodplain District is also subject to the regulations of one or more of the other districts.

Section 2-5 makes the Official Zoning Map, kept "in the office of the Zoning Administrator", "the final authority as to the current zoning status of areas within the unincorporated territory of Smyth County, Virginia". The county's GIS data has a zoning districts layer, but the map in that office settles your district, and it does not cover a town parcel.

No shipping container appears anywhere in the Smyth County Code

Smyth County's code, as codified through December 11, 2025, has no provision naming shipping containers, cargo containers, portable storage units or trailers used for storage, so there is no written yes or no to find.

One trap is worth naming. The code's one definition of storage containers sits in the solid waste rules, where it means containers used to "store, haul, transport, or convey refuse". That is about trash, not a steel box on your lot.

What the zoning ordinance's Article X does define are the words a container will be measured against. A building is "A combination of any materials, whether portable or fixed, having a roof or other cover to form a structure for the use or occupancy by persons or property." A structure is "Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground."

An accessory building or structure is "A building used for purposes customarily incidental to and clearly subordinate to the use of the lot on which it is located or on a contiguous lot", and the definition adds, "Size may not be greater than the residence in the residential zone."

Whether a container on your parcel is a building, a structure or an accessory building under those words is the Zoning Administrator's call, not ours.

Setbacks for accessory buildings, and a special use permit where no main building stands

In the Smyth County zoning ordinance, Section 4-5.1 says accessory buildings and uses "as defined in Article X, are allowed for any permitted use in each district" and Section 4-5.2 says "All accessory uses shall meet the front, rear and side lot setback requirements for the district in which they are located."

In the Agricultural (A) District the figures are printed. An accessory building sits at least five feet from the rear lot line and from a side lot line that does not abut a road or street; a side line on a road has its own figure, which is the office's to give. Front setbacks for principal and accessory buildings alike are 35 feet "from nearest edge of the right-of-way" of Highways 11, 16, 42, 81 and 91, and 40 feet from the centerline of all other roads and streets. Other districts print their own tables; our note on how close to the property line a box can sit covers the general case.

Above 150 square feet with no main building

On a lot with no main building, an accessory building above 150 square feet needs a special use permit in six districts: Agricultural, Agricultural/Rural, Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Conservation/Recreation. Each of those district lists carries the same item: "Accessory buildings above 150 square feet in size, without a main building."

In the Agricultural District the ordinance says special uses "may be permitted following a public hearing and approval as set forth in Article VI", so there it is a hearing, not a counter visit. The item is not a building permit threshold, and the ordinance says nothing about a smaller accessory building on a lot with no main building, so do not read the 150 square foot figure as a free pass below it. Whether a container counts as an accessory building at all still belongs to the Zoning Administrator.

Section 8-3 puts the zoning permit ahead of the building permit

In unincorporated Smyth County, Section 8-3.1 of the zoning ordinance reads: "No building or other structure shall be erected, moved, added to, or structurally altered or any land used, or occupied, without a zoning permit issued by the Office of the Zoning Administrator."

The same section excludes one group: "Accessory buildings that do not require a building permit due to size are excluded from the requirement to have a zoning permit". That exclusion turns on size alone. The statewide storage exemption in our Virginia container permit guide is a different kind of exemption, and the county ordinance never says whether it reaches the zoning permit, so put that question to the office rather than stacking the two.

The order runs one way for the permits Section 8-3 names. That section bars the building official from issuing a building permit "for new construction, building expansion, moving a building, change of building use, or a manufactured home" until the Zoning Administrator approves a zoning permit, and the Building & Zoning Department's own page says, "Zoning Permit: We will need a copy of your zoning permit."

Section 8-3.5 says a zoning permit expires if the use is not started within 12 months of issuance and completed within another 12 months.

Chapter 29 counts stored equipment as development

Smyth County's floodplain ordinance, Chapter 29 of the County Code, from an ordinance of June 12, 2012, applies to land in the county's jurisdiction that FEMA's flood insurance rate map shows as a special flood hazard area. Section 29-41 reads: "All uses, activities, and development occurring within any floodplain district, including placement of manufactured homes, shall be undertaken only upon the issuance of a zoning permit."

Section 29-71 defines development as "Any manmade change to improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials." The closing phrase is the one to notice with a loaded box. Chapter 29 prints no small-building exclusion, so do not count on the Section 8-3.1 size exclusion reaching a mapped flood parcel.

The county's Building & Zoning page says "The Zoning Department administers the flood ordinance", and that a floodplain project may need a surveyor's elevation certificate "showing that your floor will be one foot above flood elevation." Whether any of that reaches a container on your ground is the Zoning Department's call, and inside a town it is the town's. Siting near water in general is taken up in our short answer on putting a container in a floodplain.

Marion put its container sentence in the town code

The Town of Marion's code names shipping containers in Sec. 38-2, "Accumulations on properties located inside town limits", part of the town's health and sanitation chapter. It lists "Nontraditional storage structures such as shipping containers, storage pods" among things that "will not be allowed for any type of permanent storage solutions". The same sentence goes on: "however shipping containers and storage pods will be allowed with a special use permit for temporary uses such as, but not limited to," with examples that include "moving a residence and temporary construction for 30 days."

Read it as written. It is not a flat ban, and the sentence sets no permit length and names no office that grants the permit. Marion rewrote Chapter 38 by an ordinance adopted July 17, 2023, and the rule binds property inside Marion's town limits and nowhere else in the county. Marion also has a zoning ordinance of its own, adopted July 19, 1982, which the town code does not print; copies are on file in the office of the town manager. We have not read it, so this page says nothing about what it holds.

Start with Marion Town Hall, 138 West Main Street, Marion, VA 24354, (276) 783-4113, and ask which desk handles a temporary-use special use permit and whether a building permit comes into it. Sec. 38-2 itself mentions a building permit "issued by the Smyth County Building Inspector's office" for construction on a Marion property, but the town is the one to confirm the route for your case.

If the box is for a move, a rental lines up with how that sentence is written: month to month with no contract, $165 a month for a 20-ft and $235 a month for a 40-ft, with free delivery and free pickup inside the 75 road mile zone. Whether Marion grants the permit, and for how long, is the town's answer, not ours. Our Marion container delivery page covers the drop itself.

Chilhowie and Saltville each keep their own zoning books

Chilhowie

Chilhowie's town code prints the town's zoning ordinance as adopted on November 20, 1986, and establishes an "office of zoning administrator" to administer and enforce it. The town code as posted names no shipping or storage container. Its Section 4.7 says "An accessory building cannot be established unless a principal use exists on the property." The setback lines printed in the town's ordinance do not agree with each other, so get your figures from the town, not from us.

Chilhowie also has its own Building Inspector, whose mission statement covers the "use of all buildings and structures within the Town of Chilhowie"; the inspector's line is (276)646-3131. The town office, at 325 East Lee Highway, answers at 276-646-3232.

Saltville

The Town of Saltville sits in two counties. Its charter places the town "in the Counties of Smyth and Washington", and the town's own site says businesses pay taxes to Smyth or Washington County depending on which part of town they are in. Saltville has zoning ordinances of its own, and on June 6, 2025 a town committee approved referring to the full Council a recommendation for the formal appointment of a Zoning Administrator.

We could not confirm whether an appointment has been made since. Call the town office at 217 Palmer Avenue, Saltville, VA 24370, (276) 496-5342, open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, and ask who handles zoning questions today. On the Washington County side of town, a county-level question goes to Washington County, which this page does not cover.

Six questions for the office at 121 Bagley Circle

For an unincorporated parcel, one department holds zoning, building permits and floodplain: the Smyth County Building & Zoning Department, on the first floor of the Smyth County Office Building, 121 Bagley Circle, Suite 120, Marion, VA 24354, open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The county directory lists its main line as 276-783-3298, extension 8317; by title, the Certified Zoning Administrator is at 276-706-8316 and the Certified Permit Technician at 276-706-8317.

The ordinance asks a zoning permit applicant for a map number and, if available, a 911 street address, and says "The Administrator may accept an owner-prepared sketch for plans, as long as structure dimensions are clearly shown." Those are not the whole application, so have them ready and ask what else to bring. Then work through these:

1. Which district does the Official Zoning Map give this parcel?
2. Does the office treat a storage container as a building, a structure or an accessory building under the Article X definitions?
3. With no main building on the lot, does the special use permit item for accessory buildings above 150 square feet reach a container?
4. Does this placement need a zoning permit under Section 8-3.1, given its size exclusion and the statewide storage exemption?
5. Is any part of the parcel in a mapped floodplain district under Chapter 29?
6. What setbacks apply in this district, from the side and rear lines and from the road?

Note who answered and on what day, and if you plan to rely on an answer, ask for it in writing. Who to call about container zoning covers the same habit for other places.