Lake Tomahawk board supports decision to revisit shipping container ordinance

The Lake Tomahawk town board has agreed to support a shipping container ordinance being reconsidered by the Oneida County Board of Supervisors.

During the panel’s Oct. 11 meeting, town chairman George DeMet said he received a letter from county officials requesting the town’s input on the matter. In 2022, the county board considered an ordinance to regulate shipping containers, but it “got defeated,” DeMet explained.

 “I don’t know why it was defeated,” DeMet said. “I have no (idea) … what the problem was. Reading over the ordinance, it looked pretty good actually.”

The ordinance, he said, prohibits shipping containers in single family residential zoning with a “time limit” of 45 days if a container is being used on a property for construction purposes. 

“It seemed reasonable to me,” DeMet said. “I mean I think that maybe the county should do something about it.”

He asked town supervisors Stephanie Sowatzka and Lenore Lopez for their thoughts.

Sowatzka said she thinks the county board should revisit the ordinance.

Considering what happened when the proposed ordinance was previously on the county board floor, DeMet noted that it failed on an 8-8 vote with one abstention. 

“It seems like a reasonable ordinance to me,” he said. 

Lopez agreed and Sowatzka made a motion to formally support the reconsideration of the shipping container ordinance, which passed unanimously. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].