There is an increasing demand for self-storage facilities in strong-market cities due to the influx of job seekers who tend to rent smaller living spaces, move around more often, and small businesses who need space to store equipment and inventory. However, many city officials and community groups strongly oppose self-storage development, especially in industrial areas, because it drives real estate speculation and threatens to displace manufacturers who provide more and good-paying jobs. It leads us to the question: how can cities ensure that manufacturing co-exists with self-storage?

In this webinar, UMA addressed the City of Vancouver’s concerns regarding self-storage encroachment over industrial uses by calling planners and industrial advocates from San Francisco, New York, and Miami to discuss the land-use and zoning strategies that they used to protect manufacturing-zoned areas and meet the high demand for self-storage. Following the webinar, leveraging what they learned from the other cities, the City of Vancouver explored many regulatory and policy options to balance the need for self-storage and maintain industrial spaces for more employment generating uses. 

Featuring Matthew Bourke from the City of Vancouver; Joseph Eisenberg from the City of Miami; Joshua Switzky from the City of San Francisco; and Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen from the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) at New York City.  Facilitated by Katy Stanton and Lee Wellington of UMA. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

Cities need to adopt explicit zoning policies to protect industrial land from encroaching self-storage facilities.

The City of San Francisco adopted the Eastern Neighborhoods Plans in 2001 to preserve existing industrial uses and enable new housing and office development. Joshua Switzky, Land Use Program Manager at the San Francisco Planning Department, said that the plan established the Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR) zoning districts, which outright prohibited self-storage and other competing non-industrial uses to protect and grow manufacturing jobs in the city. However, the City categorized commercial and wholesale storage as PDR uses to meet the growing demand for storage space from businesses. The City also allowed self-storage development in residential and commercial districts and on sites owned by the Department of Transportation (such as vacant lots under freeways) to limit encroachment in industrial areas. Similarly, the Bloomberg Administration in New York City created the Industrial Business Zones (IBZs) in 2005 to protect designated manufacturing areas from residential conversion threat. However, the administration allowed as-of-right development of self-storage and other commercial uses, which increased speculation and gentrification within the IBZs. Hence, it is essential to limit manufacturing zones for manufacturing-related activities, says Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen, Director of Capacity Building at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. Finally, UMA’s own research about Land Use Policy & Real Estate Development has revealed multiple other jurisdictions are approaching industrial land protection through creative zoning tools across cities of all sizes, from Duluth and Nashville to Indianapolis and Somerville, MA.

Political and community support is essential to promoting good-quality manufacturing jobs and local equitable economic development.

Key stakeholders, including government, manufacturers, industrial advocates, and residents, must work together to support the growth of manufacturing jobs in the city. Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen, Director of Capacity Building at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), stated that New York City’s 2015 Industrial Action Plan laid out land-use policies to limit competing non-industrial uses in the city’s core manufacturing areas. The plan recognized self-storage and hotels as uses that threatened to displace manufacturing businesses and workers, resulting in a loss of good-paying jobs in the city. To address the issue, the City of New York proposed a special permit that required self-storage developers to go through a formal land-use process to build new facilities in most of the Industrial Business Zones (IBZs). However, “the City flipped its position,” said Armando, citing the modified proposal (A-text), which allowed self-storage facilities as-of-right in the IBZs with a minimum amount of space reserved for industrial uses. As a result, a group of policy advocates, service providers, and community-based organizations came together to form the Industrial Jobs Coalition, which promoted the City’s original proposal. Armando stated that “the Coalition managed to withstand the self-storage industry pushback and made sure the City kept its promises.” Similarly, the City of San Francisco approved the Eastern Neighborhoods rezoning because it received tremendous support from the City Council, legacy manufacturing businesses, and local artists. The self-storage developers were too unorganized to voice their opinions, recalled Joshua Switzky, Land Use Program Manager at the San Francisco Planning Department. 

Cities can combine light manufacturing uses with self-storage to increase employment and create a balance of mixed-uses.

In 2016, the City of Miami passed a zoning ordinance to limit self-storage development in industrial areas and two high-density mixed-use zones (T5 and T6) by mandating a 2,500 feet minimum distance between self-storage and single-family homes. Joseph Eisenberg, Urban Planner at the Miami Planning Department, stated that the ordinance intended to direct self-storage projects in industrial areas and prevent agglomeration in residential or mixed-use areas. “The legislation also mandated facility design reviews to maintain the character of the neighborhood and a ground-floor retail use, half of which had to be fully disassociated with the self-storage business, to encourage public activity on the streets,” added Joseph. The facility design criteria promotes the use of rotating panels on the otherwise nondescript facades of the self-storage facilities and multiple doors and windows on the ground-floor to develop appealing street fronts. Similarly, the City of San Francisco approved a unique zoning strategy in 2014 called “Inclusionary PDR,” allowing office development in designated manufacturing areas (PDR districts) to cross-subsidize the industrial spaces. The strategy requires a non-profit organization to own/operate the PDR space and provide affordable real estate for manufacturing businesses. Finally, New York City approved a rezoning in 2015 for 25 Kent Avenue, that ensures space for light industrial businesses in a mixed-use office and industrial development. These examples show that commercial uses, such as self-storage, can co-exist with specific industrial uses. 

CONCLUSION

The growth of self-storage facilities is a matter of concern in urban areas because they provide fewer jobs, reduce the amount of land available for uses with higher employment rates, and create unpleasant streets. However, cities can incentivize the development of light manufacturing spaces by allowing compatible uses (such as self-storage) to create a cross-subsidy mechanism and preserve a balance of mixed-uses. Cities would benefit from working with the self-storage industry, other businesses, and community groups to foster transparency and equal participation in the planning and implementation of zoning policies that directly impact neighborhoods and jobs. Finally, cities would also benefit from a system to monitor self-storage development activity to ensure enough space for manufacturing and other uses that support local economic development. 

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES