The Urbana City Council discussed an ordinance that would regulate keeping portable storage containers on private property at its meeting Monday.

Several of the issues that came up at the meeting last “week”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/09/no_new_street_sweeper_portable_storage_container_ordinance_for_urbana came up again, including allowing some flexibility in the ordinance for the number of portable containers allowed on public property.

After some debate, the city council forwarded an amended version of the ordinance to its next meeting, where it may be given final approval. That allows the Urbana zoning administrator some leeway on how many containers can be allowed when granting public storage container permits.

The controversy around the number of containers arose because of the possibility that a homeowner would have several small containers instead of a few large ones; the unamended ordinance would not allow this. For example, there is a company in Champaign that only rents out small storage containers whose business would have been hurt if the unamended ordinance passed.

“If the market says you need small ones (containers) and you need big ones, your ordinance should accommodate both,” said Robert Lewis, Ward 3.

The council also approved an ordinance annexing 2409 Brownfield Road, accepting a $3,500 grant from the Illinois Arts Council, an ordinance authorizing the $20,000 repair of a street sweeper and a motion regulating bioswales and rain gardens on public rights-of-way. The council will make a final vote on these items during the next meeting.

To end the meeting, the council discussed changing their rules on public discussion when a large group of people want to talk about a single issue or one person wants to talk about several issues. They did not vote on this item.