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The Meridian City Council is pondering its building codes after a local business owner asked for permission to erect a shipping container structure at her events venue.

In work session last, Veldore Young-Graham introduced the council to the growing trend of repurposing shipping containers for homes, businesses and more.

“People are using them for very different things, “ she said. “They’re used all over the country. They’re very durable and they’re affordable.“

In her presentation, Graham provided numerous examples of shipping containers being used for living spaces for the homeless, restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, office space and more.

Graham said she had been working for several years to get permission from the city to build a restaurant or concession stand out of a shipping container at her events venue near 5th Street and 25th Avenue.

In addition to helping her business, she said allowing shipping containers would open up new possibilities for other city residents as well.

“I’m want us to get into something more innovative, more modern,” she said.

Building Official Scott Sollie said shipping containers are not currently allowed but it is something the city is working to address.

“It’s a process,” he said.

While the 2021 International Building Code was updated to include repurposed shipping containers, Meridian is still using the 2018 IBC. Sollie said the city typically adopts updated codes every six years as required by state law, but nothing prohibits the city from updating earlier.

Regardless of what the building codes say, Sollie said the city would still need to develop the proper zoning and ordinances to incorporate shipping containers.

City Attorney Will Simmons said the council could also potentially look at creating a sort of experimental zone where shipping container structures could be put up. The process, he said, would be very similar to what the council did with food trucks, and could provide a valuable trial run to see if shipping container structures would work in Meridian.

“They may want to do a zone, a specific area like they did with the food trucks,” he said.

Rest assured the city is working on the issue, Sollie said, but at this stage of the process getting into specifics is “a bit premature.”

As the city works towards a solution, Graham asked the council to look at other Mississippi cities that already have shipping container structures, such as an Airbnb in Starkville and a residential home in Waveland, to see how they have structured their policies and ordinances to allow for shipping container structures.

“I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, just pick up where they left off,” she said.

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