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Town of Blacksburg · Montgomery County

Blacksburg's portable storage container rule

Yes, the Town of Blacksburg has a written container rule. Section 4721 of the town's zoning ordinance, titled "Portable storage containers," requires a town zoning permit for most placements and treats a container as temporary storage. It reaches only land inside the town's corporate limits. Outside them, Montgomery County's own ordinance is the one to check.

Call (276) 237-6144
Free delivery and leveling About 60 mi from yard Town rule: Section 4721
A closed gray 20-ft shipping container parked on dark asphalt, a white box truck at left and a second gray container behind it under power lines
Distance
About 60 mi from yard
County
Montgomery
Delivery
Free
Town permit desk
540-443-1300
What the town wrote

A town zoning permit, displayed on the box

Blacksburg's zoning ordinance is Appendix A of the Town Code, Ordinance No. 1137, and it names itself the Town of Blacksburg Zoning Ordinance. Section 4721 dates to Ordinance No. 1415 of July 11, 2006. The hosted copy we read is Supplement 29 Update 2, codified through Ordinance No. 2114, enacted April 14, 2026, and the section's history note lists nothing later. A council amendment after that date would not appear in it.

The ordinance defines a portable storage container as a weather-resistant receptacle designed and used for temporary storage or shipment, and the term covers container units that can be detached from a trailer. The town's own zoning page lists temporary storage containers among the things that need a zoning permit. Two things fall outside the section: dumpsters and refuse containers, and containers located on and necessary for an approved construction project.

For everything else, the temporary placement of any container on any lot needs a town zoning permit, except for a container in an Industrial zoning district. Then: "The zoning permit shall be displayed on the outside of the container." The general standards that follow apply to every container the section reaches:

  • Storage only for the lot the container sits on, and only on the same lot as the principal structure it serves. "Containers are prohibited on any lot without a principal structure."
  • Behind the front building line, only in an approved paved area, clear of vehicle entrances, visibility triangles, drive aisles, required parking and fire lanes.
  • Every district yard setback met, and never in a buffer area.
  • "Containers shall not be connected to any utilities." And "Vertical stacking of containers is prohibited."
  • At most two sign areas of four square feet each, identifying only the container supplier and telephone number.
How long, how many, how big

Fourteen days at a time, and a sixteen-foot cap beside a house

Blacksburg's Section 4721 counts time by the use the container serves, not by the zoning district. For a container accessory to an agricultural, detached single-family, attached single-family or two-family use, the section permits one container per lot for a maximum 14-day period, no more than two times per year. The table sets out every use:

Town of Blacksburg Zoning Ordinance, Sec. 4721(b) to (e)
Container accessory toHow manyHow long
Agricultural, detached single-family, attached single-family or two-family useOne per lotA maximum 14-day period, no more than two times per year
Multifamily useOne per fifty dwelling units per lotEach a maximum 14-day period, no more than two times per year
Industrial useNo more than three at once per lotEach a maximum 14-day period
Any other useOne per lotA maximum 14-day period, no more than two times per year

Whether two periods may run back to back is the Zoning Administrator's answer, not this table's. Construction-project containers are outside the section.

Beside a detached single-family home, and unless the use is agricultural, the section adds a size cap: no more than sixteen feet long, eight feet wide and eight and one-half feet tall. We sell and rent 20-ft and 40-ft containers. Both are longer than sixteen feet, so on a lot where that cap applies, neither standard size is a container Section 4721 describes. What happens next on that lot is the Zoning Administrator's answer, not ours.

Our rentals are priced by the month, while every period in subsections (b) through (e) of Section 4721 runs 14 days at most. Settle the period with the town before you order, not after. For time periods exceeding the limits in subsections (b) through (e), Section 4721(f) sends containers to a screened storage yard behind the front building line, meeting all requirements for screened storage and other applicable Zoning Code requirements. Whether any given lot can hold such a yard is the town's call.

Town or county

Where the corporate limits run, Section 4721 runs

The town ordinance applies to all property within the corporate limits of the Town of Blacksburg, and to new territory that comes into town limits by annexation, boundary adjustment or otherwise. Outside that line, none of Section 4721 reaches your parcel.

The town explains the relationship itself: "Unlike cities in Virginia, towns are political subdivisions of Virginia counties." Montgomery County assesses and taxes real estate and personal property, while the town taxes real estate only. A mailing address is not the test. Where the parcel sits decides, and the Planning and Building Department, which holds a copy of the official zoning map, can confirm it.

If the answer is outside town, the county's ordinance, its screening standard and its offices are laid out on our Montgomery County container permit guide. Delivery, sizes and the approach for any Blacksburg address are on the Blacksburg service area page, and delivery questions get a short answer in do you deliver to Blacksburg.

Owning one in town

A container you buy and keep is a question for the Zoning Administrator

Section 4721 is written around temporary placement, and for longer periods its only words are the screened storage yard clause in subsection (f). The ordinance also has separate accessory-structure rules. Whether a container an owner buys and keeps is a portable storage container under Section 4721 or falls under those other rules, and whether one is allowed at all on a given lot, the text does not settle.

The ordinance gives that call to a Zoning Administrator appointed by the Director of Planning and Building, whose duties include interpreting the ordinance and the zoning map and offering "written opinions on their meaning and applicability." Ask for one in writing before you buy. Prices and the buy-or-rent question have their own Blacksburg container sales page.

The state building code is a separate question from the town zoning permit. Virginia's storage exemption, which gets its full reading on the Virginia container permit page, does not stand in for the permit Section 4721 requires. A container meant for anything past plain storage is a matter for the town's Building Safety Division as well.

The town's own directory

Planning and Building at 400 South Main Street, applications through OpenGov

The Town of Blacksburg Planning and Building Department enforces the zoning ordinance and the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code. Its line is 540-443-1300 and its office is 400 South Main Street, Blacksburg, Virginia 24060. Zoning permits are reviewed by the town's zoning administrator, and the department names temporary storage containers among the zoning permits that go through its online OpenGov portal. The department takes applications online through OpenGov and no other way.

Building Safety, the division that reviews construction plans and issues construction permits, answers at 540-443-1325. The number 540-443-1000 belongs to the Blacksburg Municipal Building at 300 South Main Street, a separate directory entry. The permit fee is set by Town Council, with the schedule kept at the department. Neither office hours nor a turnaround time appears on the town pages we read, so none is given here.

The town's zoning page puts the order plainly: "Please allow time for approval before you make arrangements for installation or delivery." The permit is filed by you, under your parcel; Containers Delivered files nothing with the town.

Blacksburg zoning follow-ups

What Section 4721 leaves people asking

No, not under Section 4721. The section does not apply to containers located on and necessary for an approved construction project. The project's own approvals still apply, and the Planning and Building Department at 540-443-1300 can say what they cover.
No. The town's directory lists 540-443-1000 under the Blacksburg Municipal Building at 300 South Main Street. Zoning questions go to the Planning and Building Department at 540-443-1300, and permit applications go through the town's OpenGov portal.
Not in the same form. A container accessory to an industrial use may be one of up to three on the lot at once, each for a maximum 14-day period, and Section 4721 states no two-times-a-year limit for that use. A container in an Industrial zoning district needs no Section 4721 zoning permit.
Only if the town treats that surface as an approved paved area. Section 4721 allows a container only in an approved paved area, behind the front building line, so a grass patch falls outside those words, and whether a gravel pad counts on a given lot is the Zoning Administrator's decision.
Placement elsewhere

Permit and placement notes for other towns.

Blacksburg, VA

Pricing a container for a Blacksburg address?

Send the parcel number and tell us whether it sits inside town limits, and what the town said about Section 4721 if you have asked. We will quote a 20-ft or 40-ft delivered and leveled.

or (276) 237-6144