In Chicago, you always want to get the right permit for the job. And my next job was to install a 20 foot decommissioned shipping container in our yard to serve as a garden shed.

With that in mind, I made sure that we met the various zoning requirements. My intent was to place the container on the vacant lot we own next to our house. But I couldn’t just place the container/shed anywhere on the lot. It had to be placed within the rear setback, which in our case was 30% of our lot depth, or 46.5 feet from the rear property line.

I chose a distance of 25 feet from the rear property line. This way I kept the container/shed as far to the back as possible while maintaining the option for off street parking that would be accessible from the alley.

Because the shipping container is made of steel, there were no fire or other side setback requirements. I chose to offset it by one foot from the property line.

For secure placement of the container, the Department of Buildings permitted it to be placed and anchored to a five inch reinforced concrete slab, which in turn is placed on a six inch aggregate base.

Well, it looks like I will not only have a garden shed, but a pseudo tornado shelter.

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