At the end of a road north of Old Colorado City sits a shipping container. The black box has been the focus of an 18-month effort by a neighbor to get the unpermitted and wrongly placed accessory rental unit out of their sight.

In spring 2023, Thomas Helger and his wife noticed a large box being delivered next to the front fence of the house across the street. The Helgers have lived in their home for 25 years. The neighbor’s house had just been bought by a new owner and was being remodeled. At first, the Helgers thought it was a temporary office or an industrial-size Dumpster for the home construction.

It turned out to be a black shipping container, half-hidden by front-yard trees. The owner added windows to the side and a hot tub on the container’s top. A few weeks later, Helger saw it pop up on Airbnb as a rental. His house appeared in the background of some of the promotional pictures.

“When people there are looking towards Pikes Peak, there is a direct line of sight to my second-floor bedroom and bathroom. I don’t feel comfortable with that,” Helger said.

Helger made his first complaint about the property to the city’s code enforcement department in June 2023. It took the better part of a year before the listing was pulled from Airbnb and other rental websites.

City staff said the property owner, Michael Vialpando, had worked with them on-and-off over the last year to resolve the other issues with keeping the container where it is. The fight has resulted in fines and restrictions but has not reached the point where the city has ordered it to be removed.

“It’s not on a foundation, it doesn’t have a permit, it was placed in the setback. We have given ample time to fix that, and I know there’s some frustration about how long it takes,” city planning director Kevin Walker said.

The container’s location and use were illegal in Colorado Springs’ current city code about accessory dwelling units. Detached ADUs are not allowed that far to the front of the property and the structure did not get permits for the fence built around part of it.

Vialpando did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Gazette.

Helger worried the fight over the shipping container would be a harbinger of wider issues that would come to Colorado Springs when accessory dwelling units are more widely permitted next year.

“If it takes this long to get a violation to comply with the law, then what will happen when this passes and we have 10, 20, maybe 100 times the number of units?” Helger asked. “The city won’t be able to keep up.”

The construction and permissions for an ADU are overseen by three different departments. The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department reviews the overall building permits and safety standards. City Planning checks on the specific zoning requirements. Code enforcement, which is no longer part of the planning department, issues fines and penalties for any violations.

Pikes Peak Regional Building Department issued a noncompliance order on the property earlier this year. The order functions like a lien, preventing the property from being sold or refinanced until the owner makes the changes that would get them back into compliance.

Code enforcement officer Tom Wasinger said many of the calls the department gets about new features getting added are smaller than 200 square feet and don’t require city permits. The majority of cases that do involve illegal structures are resolved without fines being issued.

Wasinger said that most violations are not intentional — they come from people who moved to Colorado Springs from smaller towns or states that have less extensive zoning rules. A single fine usually prompts change for small-scale cases.

“There are cases where we start getting to that point and the property owner realizes we’re not going to go away, and it’s cheaper for them to take care of the violation,” Wasinger said.

Colorado Springs opened the non-compliance case in June 2023. The first fine was not levied until November of this year for $100, followed a few weeks later by a $250 fine.

On Dec. 11, the Vialpandos officially filed for a variance permit from the city to keep the storage container building at its current space on the property.

In the variance application available through the city website, the homeowners said the two-acre property had a front yard larger than several of the surrounding homes. The Vialpandos argued this meant the front yard should be treated differently when it came to the ADU distance.

The application said the trees and design of the container were meant to “enhance the overall visual character of the neighborhood.”

“Relocating the structure would be unnecessary and impractical, as it does not encroach on neighbors’ enjoyment or use of their properties,” the homeowners wrote.

Colorado Springs was required by a state law passed this year to drop restrictions on where accessory dwelling units can be built. The new ordinance is coming to the Colorado Springs City Council for a vote early next year.

The ADU ordinance being considered would not have made the storage container a legal addition. The proposed new rules would allow an ADU to possibly be built on any single-family unit with enough space but does not allow them to be built in front of the main home.

The version of the ordinance backed by the Planning Commission in early December would ban all new accessory dwelling units from being used as short-term rentals.