Members of the Ogden Town Board will hold a public hearing Wednesday, February 12 on a proposed local law to regulate and authorize self service storage facilities in the town.
Residents and board members have been grappling with the issue for some time.
Back on November 13, 2013, the board held a public hearing on a proposed local law to amend Chapter 210 of the Town of Ogden, providing for self-service storage facilities.
Several residents expressed concerns at that time over the law which proposed to allow self-storage as a conditional use in the Restricted Business, Neighborhood Commercial, and General Commercial Districts of the town as well as in the Light Industrial District where it is currently permissible.
Residents who spoke provided the board with detailed information regarding the facilities and asked for stricter guidelines and more town control over the location and appearance of the facilities.
Town Board members decided to take time to study the issues raised during the November public hearing and voted during their regular meeting January 22, 2014, not to act on the local law (Local Law No. 6-2013) proposed last year.
The newly proposed local law – Local Law No. 2-2014 – which replaces the one proposed late last year, will be the subject of the February 12 public hearing. It defines self-service storage facilities, provides that the facilities are a permitted use in a Light Industrial District, and creates a Self-Service Storage Overlay District within the town.
Ogden Town Supervisor Gay Lenhard says the overlay district, “gives us the opportunity, when someone comes (with a proposal for a self-storage facility) and the land is not light industrial, to create an overlay district.”
The new overlay district would provide a procedure for siting of self-service storage facilities within listed zoning districts of the town and requires the approval of the application by the Town Board as well as site plan approval from the Planning Board and a conditional use permit issued by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Lenhard explains that if, for example, an overlay district was created in what is now a residential district, it would remain that way. In the event the self storage facility closed, the site would revert back to residential zoning.
Also proposed in the new law is the establishment of development standards for the facilities and contains a list of proposed prohibited uses.
The public hearing on February 12 will be held at the Ogden Community Center, 269 Ogden Center Road, and begins at 7:05 p.m.
