More About the "Pod"

On Monday, October 1st, the Bridgewater Township Council, at its regular session meeting introduced an ordinance “amending Chapter 105 of the Municipal Code entitled ‘Outdoor Storage.’” This revised ordinance will regulate the nature and duration of storage containers placed on private property. Action was initiated after the council was made aware, at its previous meeting on September 17th that a cargo container sat on a property located at 303 Old York Road in Bridgewater.

The modified ordinance will no longer permit the siting of an ancillary structure such as the one which you see in the photo above. The owner of this cargo container spoke at Monday night’s Council meeting. He told the councilors that he had been given prior authorization by the Township to keep this container as a permanent ancillary structure on his property provided that he met the three following conditions:

1. That the cargo container be moved further back from the road and placed on a concrete pad.
2. That two windows be installed to soften the visual impact.
3. That T-111 siding be installed on the cargo container. (A Google query returned a response defining this type of siding as a wood composite material.)

The previously authorized engineering approval was recently revoked after a number of adjoining neighbors objected to having this monstrosity (is there any reasonable doubt?) next to their back yards. Apparently, the approval to modify the cargo container had been given, because there was a loophole in the original ordinance that allowed it.

Jeez! Where was the common sense? It seems to me that the Township officials who approved retention of this cargo container as a permanent ancillary building could have brought the question to the attention of the mayor and the council long before it became such a controversy.

I don’t think that it was very good judgment on the owner’s part, but he was merely trying to get away with what he thought he could under the law. Imagine one of these things next to your own back yard. How long would you put up with it?

Note: See my 9/23/07 blog post on this topic at
http://cnbergeron.blogspot.com/2007/09/pod-grows-in-bridgewater.html