City Plan commissioners approved a plan to convert up to 65,000 square feet of industrial space on Lenox Street into self-storage units — after deciding that that controversially quiet use fit better at a former factory in the Heights than at a former factory in Newhallville.
They took that unanimous vote Wednesday night during the latest online monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission.
The proposal in question was a special permit sought by applicant Frank Talierco and local attorney Ben Trachten to allow for a self-storage facility at the former fabric-coating chemical factory at 30 Lenox St.
That property is still owned by Trelleborg Coating Systems US Inc., even though that company shut down its industrial operations in the Heights roughly a year ago.
Wednesday’s special permit application followed the Board of Zoning Appeals’ (BZA) recent approval of a use variance for the property to be turned into a micro-manufacturing “flex workshop” — that is, a mix of private studios to be occupied by artists, small business owners, and small-scale manufacturers.
Trachten told the City Plan commissioners on Wednesday that his client still very much plans on turning as much of the former factory building as possible into a “flex workshop.”
“We hope the flex workshop becomes the dominant use at the site,” he said. But, as he previewed during the BZA review process, “to make it economically viable from the beginning, we need the self-storage use.”
The special permit up for review on Wednesday would allow Trachten’s client to convert the basement and first floors of 30 Lenox St.‘s main former mill building to self-storage. It would allow for the same in three smaller adjacent buildings on the property. The only space where self-storage would not be allowed under this permit would be the second and third floors of the old mill building.
“This area has not seen rampant residential development like Dixwell and Newhallville,” Trachten said in support of allowing for rentable storage units at 30 Lenox. Self-storage would also represent a “far de-intensification from the prior heavy industrial use” of the property by Trelleborg.
Trachten recognized the “general distaste” that planners and economic development staff have for self-storage. But, he said, especially with the proposed flex workshop, this redeveloped site would be “economically productive” — and much cleaner than other heavy industrial uses that would be permitted as of right.
During their deliberations on the matter, the commissioners frequently referenced a self-storage plan that they shot down in February for a different dilapidated former factory — this one located on Shelton Avenue in Newhallville.
During that failed application’s review, artists renting out studio space in the former Newhallville factory spoke out in droves against the proposal. Commissioners ultimately voted down the plan out of a concern that self-storage would serve as “dead space” in the neighborhood.
“This is the same type of application,” commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe said on Wednesday about 30 Lenox, “but totally different circumstances.”
Commissioner and Westville Alder Adam Marchand pointed out that the 30 Lenox St. former factory does not abut residential properties in the way that the Shelton Avenue one does. It’s also built on hte side of a hill, as opposed to right in the middle of a dense populated neighborhood.
“This would be a very suitable” use for the property, Radcliffe said.
“I think it’s preferable to have more of that space used for other activities,” Marchand said, including the proposed flex workshop, “but I recognize that this project is going to be complicated and costly.”
With that, the commissioners voted unanimously in support of the self-storage permit, teeing this project up to return to the City Plan Commission at a future date for full site plan review.
