Self-storage facilities are now prohibited in the village of Lewiston in New York.
The village’s board of trustees passed the law on March 4, declaring self-storage facilities an unpermitted use in business and residential business districts. However, they are still eligible for a use variance granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“It’s basically, do we want a great, big storage building,” said Mayor Anne Welch, explaining there are restrictions in the village code because village leaders feel they do not fit.
The law does not include portable storage units, garages, storage areas on private residences, or other accessory uses, allowing businesses to have storage spaces.
Trustees for the Village of Lewiston in Niagara County, New York have scheduled a public hearing to discuss whether to ban self-storage facilities within the municipality. Residents can voice their opinions at 6 p.m. Monday, March 4, inside the Morgan Lewis Village Boardroom at the Red Brick Municipal Building, 145 N. Fourth St.
If adopted, the proposed local law would prohibit self-storage facilities anywhere in the village. Following the municipal meeting, Trustee Nick Conde said that self-storage “was already prohibited, but we wanted to strengthen the wording on it.”
“There are certain areas that somebody could go in and build these storage facilities in residential sections," Mayor Anne Welch clarified. “Nick [Conde] came up and he thought we should strengthen the code to make sure that that can't happen.”
Conde said, “Where the (current) zoning fell, there’s a lot of properties that fall right on Center Street that could potentially be used for self-storage. I don’t think this board wanted to see storage units on Center Street... It wouldn’t fit with the village.”
The proposal will first go to the village’s Planning Commission and then to the Niagara County Planning Board for consideration. This is necessary “because it's a change of the zoning law,” village counsel Joseph Leone Jr. said. "Those panels “have the right to weigh in.”
With regard to the self-storage business already operating on Cayuga Street, Leone said the new law “recognizes that there is an existing use, and it's not looking to put that person out of business.”