When a new self storage facility opened near the Dock Shopping Center in 2020, the town government praising the development, stating it would bring revenue to the town.
With two new self storage buildings in the planning stages, Economic and Community Development Director Mary Dean said it is becoming too much.
Dean recently presented a moratorium proposal to the Economic Development Commission that would put a stop to additional self storage building developments in town. She said the town had become saturated with them and a pause would allow the town to figure next steps to promote a diverse local economy.
I do support the moratorium as written. It was good to reference when we did the tax abatement the fact that that was excluded, because we anticipated saturation.”
The commission approved the plan, which now moves on to the Zoning Commission for review and possible approval. If the Zoning Commission approves, the moratorium could go into effect in March.
Self storage buildings occupy a lot of space, Dean said. Using an economic formula, she estimated the town could sustain 307,508 square feet of storage facilities. Currently the total combined space of storage units approved in town is 340,944 square feet.
Dean said she wanted to prioritize other businesses because self storage units come with disadvantages.
“The Town of Stratford would like to prioritize businesses that bring in jobs with employees that take advantage of what (the) community has to offer. Additionally, it is extremely difficult to do any adaptive re-use of a storage facility should they choose to close down,” she said.
The town’s desire to pause building more units isn’t unique. Spenser Allaway is a senior analyst for Green Street, a real estate analysis organization, said self storage units aren’t that popular with municipalities for a simple reason.
“There is NIMBYism involved and storage doesn’t increase taxable income outside of property taxes,” Allaway said.
In addition, the existing storage units are not full, Dean said.
Town officials have criticized storage units before. When Democratic candidate for mayor Immacula Cann ran in 2021, she complained that the town was bland and had no real identity with a non-descript townscape of discount stores, auto parts stores and self storage units.
The town removed self storage units from its tax abatement program in 2019, Town Council member Greg Cann said.
“I do support the moratorium as written. It was good to reference when we did the tax abatement the fact that that was excluded, because we anticipated saturation,” Cann said.
