Cargo containers for homes OK'd (Long Beach, CA) [View All]

[KansDem]

LONG BEACH - Steel shipping containers could become the future of Long Beach housing.

A divided Planning Commission voted Thursday to alter residential building restrictions that prohibit metal roofs and siding, now allowing the use of steel cargo shipping containers as building material.

The vote gave the green light for the owners of a home at 2175 San Francisco Ave., in the Wrigley Area, to move forward on their home remodeling, which was well under way and already had a shipping container in the backyard. However, the project will still have to go through a site plan review process first to ensure the addition is appropriate to the original structure.

More importantly, the vote will allow anyone in Long Beach to use cargo containers in residential construction as well, either for a new home or for an addition.

The project designer, Manhattan Beach-based Peter DeMaria, argued that the theory behind prohibiting metal roofs and siding didn't apply to cargo containers, which are "a new way in which we could live."

He said that in addition to being inexpensive, sturdy, earthquake-resistant and virtually fire-proof, the containers are a sustainable form of housing that reuses existing materials.

Neighbors, however, aren't happy about the San Francisco Avenue project. They called the cargo container "visual blight" and that it isn't consistent with the neighborhood aesthetic of Spanish-style and other traditional homes.

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Long Beach Press Telegram