Council adopts limits on street-fronting self-storage on Beacon’s main corridors

The Beacon Common Council on June 2 adopted a local law that regulates self-storage and warehouse storage uses in commercial and industrial zoning districts, adding special-permit requirements for parcels that front designated main streets.

City legal staff summarized the new rule: self-storage and warehouse storage remain permitted in GB (General Business), LI (Limited Industrial) and HI (Heavy Industrial) zones, but parcels with frontage on Main Street, Fishkill Avenue, Beekman Street, Herbert Street and Tyrone Avenue will require a planning-board special-permit review. The special-permit conditions generally require that storage uses not locate directly along the street-facing property line and that they be located behind an active ground-floor use or in a secondary structure set back at least 10 feet from a primary street-facing structure.

Councilmembers voted to adopt the local law. One councilmember registered opposition during the roll call; the motion carried. Staff noted the law is intended to limit street-facing storage facilities along primary corridors while preserving storage as a permitted use in appropriate zones.

The local law includes standard special-permit requirements from the zoning code and aims to keep active ground-floor uses along Main Street and other corridors while allowing storage behind or below active uses where appropriate.

The measure was adopted at the meeting; staff will implement the change through the planning-board special-permit process for any future applications that meet the frontage criteria.