How many self-storage facilities can you pack into one small village?

May 30, 2024 at 5:04 a.m.

StorQuest Self Storage at 2 Highland St., the former Bantam toy factory. (Jananne Abel/Westmore News)

Do you believe that within the next few years there could be six self-storage facilities in Port Chester?

When the application for the fourth was to be heard by the Board of Trustees in March 2020, I was appalled and wondered how another such business could be built right across the street from Westy Self Storage and next to the police station at 354 North Main St.

    The site of the latest application for a self-storage facility in front of Floor & Décor at 120 Midland Ave.
 By Jananne Abel   

Because Westy’s fought this competitor before the Zoning Board of Appeals and then in court, construction of the new building was delayed, and the Steilmann European Ladies Fashion outlet and other outbuildings on the site were only demolished within the past month.

Storage Deluxe, the original intended operator, has been replaced by CubeSmart.

In the meantime, without my even taking note since the application didn’t have to go before any boards or commissions and the business isn’t located on a main thoroughfare, Vanguard Self Storage popped up at 123 Oak St. as a conversion of the former Empire Brush factory which had been broken into various offices and other commercial uses.

That made number five.

Then, two months ago, a proposal for a sixth self-storage structure came before the Planning Commission for property at 120 Midland Ave. in front of Floor & Décor, a site which had previously been approved for retail. The applicants claimed that after a year of trying, they could not get a retail operator to construct a building there so instead were going with self-storage as a special exception use.

    Westy Self Storage at 299 Boston Post Rd. within the Gateway Shopping Center.
 By Jananne Abel   

That application really set me off, and I began formulating this editorial. Enough is enough, I thought. How many of these boxy structures can we tolerate in our 2.4-square-mile village?

After the now-approved Cube Smart proposal next to the police station came to light, the Planning Commission recommended, and the Board of Trustees approved, a change to the zoning code to restrict self-storage to Boston Post Road and Midland Avenue. No more on Main Street. That was a smart move, but it didn’t stop the inundation.

Before I put pen to paper to crank out my thoughts, Trustee Phil Dorazio introduced a discussion on the topic at the May 1 non-televised agenda meeting of the Board of Trustees. I wasn’t there. But the dialogue continued at the Wednesday, May 29 agenda meeting, and I made a point of attending.

    Vanguard Self Storage takes up a block on Oak and William streets. It was once the Empire Brush Works.
 By Jananne Abel   

A moratorium is being considered on self-storage businesses in the village to allow time to study the issue and change the zoning code appropriately. It would apply to any such facility without a shovel in the ground. So it won’t apply to Cube Smart on North Main. But it will halt any further action on the Midland Avenue application.

In some cases, the new storage facilities have improved upon the look of the structures or general appearance of the site that came before, but in my experience around the country, self-storage businesses are built next to highways and in the worst part of town. They don’t pay a lot of taxes, but neither do they require a lot of services. They are not the highest and best use for a piece of property.

As Trustee Dorazio stressed on May 29, they do not create any jobs.

How many self-storage businesse

    The structures on the former longtime site of Steilmann European Ladies Fashion outlet next to the police station at 354 North Main St. have recently been razed to make way for a CubeSmart Self Storage.
 By Jananne Abel   

s do you see in neighboring Rye or Greenwich?

Once again, as I’ve heard so many times from various village board members over the years, Port Chester has become the “dumping ground” for less desirable businesses used by residents from neighboring municipalities. At one time Port Chester was filled with bars open till 4 a.m. frequented by Connecticut residents. Now the village is storing stuff for them.

Long before the form-based code was approved, there wasn’t much development going on in the village and a huge red self-storage building was approved for the former Willow Motors property on South Main Street. Fortunately, for whatever reason, that obscene structure at the gateway to the village never saw the light of day.

Then the former owner of the Gateway office building on South Main Street threatened to tear down the attractive glass structure and construct self-storage there because he was having trouble getting tenants. Fortuitously, the village board turned him down flat, and the building was sold to its current owner who has done miracles with the property.

    Westy Self Storage at 351 North Main St.
 By Jananne Abel   

Two Westy’s, one StorQuest at 2 Highland St. (conversion of Bantam toy factory), Vanguard on Oak and William streets and CubeSmart coming on North Main. Isn’t that enough already?