The owner of a shipping container that has become the subject of a petition at City Hall says the can is on her property for safety reasons.
Christena Knott said the shipping container was intentionally placed along the property line in order to block her next door neighbour’s view of her backyard.
Both Knott and her neighbour, Eric Carlson, allege there has been harrassment on both sides, as well as threats uttered.
Knott and Carlson also both admit that the RCMP has been called more than five different times. Campbell River RCMP, for its part, said it “can’t provide comment if we are or are not investigating something or someone.”
While both say problems began shortly after Knott moved in last winter, things got heated after Knott brought a large sea can onto her property a few months ago.
The container was relocated from the back of the Quinsam Hotel. Knott’s boyfriend and his father owned the licensing for the Quinsam Hotel and after the historic building was ravaged by fire, the pair salvaged what they could from the building and have been storing it inside the shipping container.
“There was nowhere else to put everything,” Knott said. “What was salvageable couldn’t fit in a small storage container.”
After Knott brought the shipping container on to her property, it raised the ire of Carlson who, in response, wrote up a petition asking city council to ban the permanent use of shipping containers on residential property. The petition garnered 32 signatures and was presented to city council at its Oct. 10 meeting.
“I don’t want to be looking at a storage container. This one beside my property, it’s referred to as a sea can and it’s one you’d see on commercial property. This thing is 45 feet long and 9.5 feet high, it’s enormous,” Carlson said. “The fact it’s on residential property has really got my feathers ruffled.
Carlson said the container is visible from the sun deck in his backyard and he’s fed up.
“I don’t want one of these things beside my property line,” he said. “I’m thinking of selling my property because of it.”
Knott said she can understand why people signed the petition prompted by her shipping container but she’s at a loss for what to do.
“I understand sea cans are an eyesore,” Knott said. “The container is there temporarily, it was never permanent but we want a fence put up before we move it.”
She said she’s planning on putting up a fence between the two yards this spring but in the meantime she has no intention of moving the shipping container.
Carlson is equally fed up.
“I’m maintaining my property, paying my taxes, doing what I’m supposed to do,” he said. “There’s certainly a problem here.”
@CRMirror
kristend@campbellrivermirror.com
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