Marshall Extends Storage Trailer Limit to 90 Days After Public Comment

Marshall City Council | August 24, 2026

Article Summary: The Marshall City Council on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, adopted Ordinance 2026-O-25, amending the city’s zoning rules on temporary uses and structures to extend from 30 days to 90 days the period a storage trailer may be used for construction, remodeling, rehabilitation or a special promotion. The vote followed a public comment period in which eight residents spoke in favor of allowing permanent ConEx containers on properties in the city.

Temporary Uses Ordinance Key Points:

Eight residents — Lila Wetnight, Gary Wallace, Kathy Kuhn, Janice Kesler, Allen Rice, Jeannette Warner, Susie Rinesmith and J.D. Meyers — spoke in favor of allowing permanent ConEx containers on properties, according to the minutes.

The only change marked in the draft ordinance strikes “thirty (30)” and inserts “ninety (90)” in the provision governing storage trailers used for construction, remodeling, rehabilitation or a special promotion.

Logan Swalls moved adoption, seconded by Michael Smitley; the minutes record all council members voting in favor.

The ordinance takes effect 10 days after passage, approval and publication in pamphlet form.

MARSHALL — The Marshall City Council on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, voted unanimously to adopt Ordinance 2026-O-25, an amendment to Appendix A, Zoning, Article XII, Accessory Structures and Uses, Section 12-6, Temporary Uses/Structures, after eight residents used the meeting’s public comment period to ask the council to allow permanent ConEx containers on properties in the city.

The draft ordinance included in the council’s agenda materials marks its changes with strikeouts for deletions and underscores for additions. Only one such change appears in the document. In the subsection governing prohibited temporary uses, the provision allowing a storage trailer on a zoning lot “when the trailer is being used for a construction, remodeling, rehabilitation, or special promotion” strikes “thirty (30)” and underscores “ninety (90)” days.

Swalls made the motion to adopt. Smitley seconded. The minutes record that upon roll call all council members voted in favor and the motion carried. All council members were present for the meeting, according to the roll call recorded at the top of the minutes, and no numeric tally appears in the record.

What the Ordinance Does and Does Not Change

The section amended by Ordinance 2026-O-25 has two parts. The first lists temporary uses permitted in every zoning district subject to time limits: a tent or similar temporary covering to protect goods that must be stored outdoors because of emergency conditions, for the duration of the emergency; Christmas tree sales for up to 60 days; seasonal greenhouses for up to 180 days; a contractor’s office and equipment shed accessory to a construction project, containing no sleeping or cooking accommodations and to be removed promptly on completion or abandonment of the project; a real estate office incident to a new housing development, until all dwelling units are disposed of; a carnival or circus operated by a local nonprofit organization for not more than one week, and not in a residential district except on church or school property; and garage, rummage or estate sales for up to three consecutive days.

The second part lists prohibited temporary uses — “any nonpermanent structure, including any type of mobile unit used in whole or in part for business, as a residence, or for storage in any district in the city.” Under that heading, storage trailers may not be placed on any lot zoned R-1, B-1 or B-4, nor on any other zoning lot except in three circumstances: in association with new construction, with removal required within 30 days after 90 percent of lots or units in the tract have been sold, rented, leased or occupied; for a construction, remodeling, rehabilitation or special promotion, the window now extended to 90 days; or when the trailer is used for a permitted use or special use in a particular zoning district.

Those prohibitions, and a separate provision grandfathering storage trailers in use on April 1, 2010, appear in the draft without strikeouts or underscores. The grandfather clause allows such trailers to continue as a legal nonconforming use provided there is no physical change beyond necessary maintenance and repair, the trailer meets all other requirements of the article, it is removed if its use is discontinued for six months, it is used only as an accessory use, and it meets all applicable anchorage and tie-down requirements — and provided that, except in agricultural and manufacturing districts, all such storage trailers were removed on or before April 1, 2015. The underlying section is attributed in the code to Ordinance No. 10-3, Section 1, adopted March 26, 2010.

Eight Speakers on Containers, One Dissent

The minutes record that Wetnight, Gary Wallace, Kuhn, Kesler, Rice, Warner, Rinesmith and Meyers “spoke in favor of allowing permanent ConEx containers on properties.” They also record that Herman Wallace “does not want them if temporary.”

The minutes do not record what any speaker said beyond those characterizations, do not define the term “ConEx containers,” and do not record any response, discussion or comment by the mayor, council members or staff on the subject. No agenda item at the Aug. 24 meeting used the term. The council’s materials contain no staff memo, application, petition or correspondence on containers.

The ordinance takes effect 10 days after its passage, approval and publication in pamphlet form, under Section 3 of the document, and contains a severability clause.