Container permits inside Christiansburg's town limits: Sec. 42-662

Christiansburg's Sec. 42-662 says portable storage containers are "allowed in all zoning districts" under its rules, and its first rule reads "Permits shall be required for all portable storage containers." Containers are then allowed "up to 14 days in any one year period," and one used with an "approved permitted" construction, reconstruction or remodeling project is allowed "for a maximum of 180 total days" in that period. The section's Exemptions paragraph names the cases that skip the permit.

Containers Delivered rents month to month, and a month runs past 14 days, so settle the period with the Planning Department before you rent or buy for an in-town lot. The permit is free and filed on the town's permitting portal; we do not pull permits. The ordinance text quoted here is Municode's, codified through October 25, 2022, and none of the later Chapter 42 amendments on the town's list names Sec. 42-662.

Christiansburg's Sec. 42-662 limits a container by volume: portable storage containers "shall not exceed 1,360 cubic feet." Our own published figures put a 40-ft container at about 2,390 cubic feet inside, well past that line, and a 20-ft container at about 1,170, under it.

The 20-ft figure is not a green light: we found no definition in Sec. 42-1 or Sec. 42-662 of how capacity is measured, inside the steel or by outside dimensions. Ask the Planning Department before you order a 20-ft for an in-town lot, and settle a 40-ft in writing first. Blacksburg's Sec. 4721 caps dimensions instead for a container accessory to detached single-family use, unless agricultural in use, as the Blacksburg permits and placement page explains.

Christiansburg's Sec. 42-662 permits no more than one container per single-family residential "structure, duplex or vacant lot" and one per 25 units in a multifamily development. Containers "shall not be allowed in required greenspace or parking areas," though one used for construction, reconstruction or remodeling may use required parking, and none may stand in a public street right-of-way "in any district other than the B-2 Central Business District," where it needs the "permission of the town manager."

A container used for "more than 14 days shall comply with setbacks of the respective zoning district," B-2 aside with the town manager's permission, and containers "shall not be stacked" outside the I-2 General Industrial District. Which part of a lot counts as required greenspace or parking, and which setback applies, is the Planning Department's call.

Containers also "shall not be connected to any utilities," except that a container "for an approved development project may be connected" to electric. The Woodlawn shop roughs in electrical only and a licensed electrician makes the final hookup, so a wired box bound for an in-town lot is a Planning question before the build.

Christiansburg's Sec. 42-662 says a container "shall not require a permit" when it is "located on, and necessary for," an approved development project, or when it serves "permitted distribution and storage purposes" in the B-3 General Business, I-1 Limited Industrial or I-2 General Industrial district. The development-project container "shall still be subject to provisions" on permitted areas, setbacks, stacking, utilities, advertising and upkeep, and the storage exemption holds only while those provisions "are met."

The town's permit sheet words the construction case its own way, requiring a permit for containers "not used in conjunction with approved, permitted construction projects," so on a remodel ask Planning which reading applies. On a commercial lot, ask too whether the parcel carries proffered conditions; the town's 2023 rezoning records include a proposed proffer barring portable storage containers from a parcel being rezoned B-3. A store weighing seasonal container rentals in Christiansburg should put the storage exemption to Planning first.

A container bought to stay on a lot inside Christiansburg is the case the town's definitions leave open. Sec. 42-1 defines a portable storage container as "a portable, weather-resistant receptacle designed and used for the temporary" storage or shipment of items and an accessory building as "a subordinate structure customarily incidental to, and located upon, the same" lot as the main structure, and its definition of a temporary structure names "cargo containers."

We found no section or town page that says which of those governs a kept box, and the answer decides whether Sec. 42-662's clock and cap apply or the accessory-structure rules with a zoning permit under Sec. 42-6. Before you buy, ask the Planning Department which applies and whether a 40-ft is allowed on the lot at all, in writing. Virginia's storage exemption, read line by line on the Virginia container permits guide, is a building-code matter and leaves the town's zoning question open.

Christiansburg's Chapter 42 reaches "the incorporated areas of the town," in the words of Sec. 42-2, and the town's zoning map and GeoWeb map both show the corporate limits. For a certified answer on one parcel, the town offers a Zoning Verification Letter, "a signed document that provides certified Zoning information about a parcel of land." Land outside the limits falls under the county ordinance on the Montgomery County container permits page, and the Christiansburg container sales page sums up the town-or-county question.

The Planning Department "administers the zoning ordinance," in the town's words: 100 E. Main St., Christiansburg, VA 24073, (540) 382-6120, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Building Inspections, which issues building permits, shares the address and hours at 540-382-6120 ext. 1152, and is the desk for a remodel's building permit and any container people will work or live in.