The City of Long Beach will temporarily waive enforcement of current shipping container stacking and height limits at the Port of Long Beach for a period of 90 days to help alleviate the current congestion crisis in southern California.
The limits on container stacks have been either two stacked containers or eight feet in height, in line with Municipal Code’s zoning provisions. During this period of 90 days, affected operations will be allowed to stack up to four shipping containers without being cited for a code violation.
These measures will only apply to properties that are currently zoned to allow shipping container stacking, and properties that wish to stack up to five containers high have been recommended contacting Fire Prevention to ensure the site can safely accommodate the height.
“The city will work during the next 90-day period to assess the situation and the effectiveness of this solution and any impacts on the surrounding areas,” read a statement from the City of Long Beach.
“City staff anticipates presenting information on this topic to the City Council in November to receive further input on the solution as well as consideration for impacts to the areas where these operations are located.”
The latest update on the ongoing congestion crisis in southern California shows 79 vessels are waiting in the water outside of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as of 25 October 2021.
Fenix Marine Services’ Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles has also reported that in the past week 45-55% of import appointment slots were going unused, therefore either not booked at all, or booked but then not used.
This has led to Shipping Analyst Lars Jensen criticising the move to 24/7 operations, as he argued, “In this context, it is difficult to see how increased gate hours would in a meaningful way be able to help alleviate the problems.”
