Portable storage in Escondido

In Escondido the first question is about the code, not the driveway. Article 36 of the city's zoning code, sections 33-720 to 33-728, makes it unlawful to place cargo containers in the R-1 to R-5 and RT residential zones unless an exemption applies. Where a cargo container is allowed on private property, it needs a Minor Development Permit.

The code defines a cargo container as an industrial metal shipping container. It does not say whether a portable moving and storage container, delivered for a few weeks or months, falls under that definition. A container is steel, which is exactly why we will not guess on your behalf. We do not decide this question for customers. Before you reserve, check with the City of Escondido Planning Division: tell them the container's size and how long it will stay, and ask whether Article 36 applies to it at your address.

Construction is the clearest case. Section 33-725 allows cargo containers on private property in every zone, for a limited time, to store building materials or construction tools during work under an active building permit on the same property. The container has to go within 10 calendar days after the permit expires or receives its final inspection, and if work stops for 30 days, within 10 days of the city's notice. On a lot under one acre it can stay no more than 180 days in a calendar year. That exemption is written for permitted projects and for materials and tools; it is not a general allowance for household storage.

Wherever a container sits, section 33-727 says it must not block access to the right-of-way, exits, required parking or fire lanes. A container in the street itself is public right-of-way work, and the city's encroachment permit guideline requires a traffic control plan for all work there.

Hidden Meadows and Harmony Grove have Escondido mailing addresses but are generally unincorporated county land, where county rules apply rather than Escondido's code. If your address is there, check with the County of San Diego instead.

Then there is the heat. Escondido reached 115 °F on September 6, 2020, and its summers run notably hotter than the coast. A closed steel box in that sun gets hot inside, and a container is weather sealed and ventilated, not climate controlled. Leave out wine, aerosol cans, cosmetics, film and anything with a lithium battery, load during the cooler morning hours, and put fragile or valuable pieces in our climate-controlled vaulted storage.

If the Planning Division's answer rules out a container at home, your things can still go into storage. Our climate-controlled vaulted storage is priced by the space you use, at our Sorrento Valley facility about 30 minutes away without traffic. If a container is allowed, choose between the Standard, 5×8×8 ft with 320 cubic feet of space, and the Large, 7×8×8 ft with 448.