I'm facing a similar problem. I can put two 10X12 sheds in my back yard, no problem. But I want a workshop, and I want to be able to rip a 10 foot board without being outside in the rain, as well as space for shelves and shelves of tools, work benches, and a couple stationary machines. That's a different critter. Can't be done without a permit. But the permit can't be issued without the plans going through a design review board at the City Planning Commission. Got about half way through the process, making additions to the shed for "architectural compatibility" and then ran into one of the building design people who insisted on detailed drawings of the trusses and their method of attachment (this for a commercially built shed). Great. Now I'm supposed to hire an architect to do all the drawings. Then he said that concrete piers wouldn't do -- it had to have a poured concrete foundation with J bolts. He penciled up a rough sketch, and that included an attached concrete slab. He added that it was all very complicated and he couldn't possibly explain it to me. Just another $2,500 apparently doesn't mean much to him, but it means the project now costs more than I have. Shipping containers would be nixed as architecturally incompatible. Otherwise, he opined, I could move to Idaho and put up anything I wanted.
It seems silly, and some of it is silly. But these rules were put in place because of some of the ramshackle monstrosities people people have put up. I saw one made almost entirely of pallets nailed together. Some people have put up a bunch of sheds that nearly cover their back yards. This is dangerous to both you and your neighbors, since, if nothing else, it impedes firemen trying to fight a fire. Trying to snake through a whole bunch of sheds is a bad idea.