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Planning commission recommends prohibiting mini-warehouses, offers design standards if continued conditionally
Summary
After several reviews, the commission recommended prohibiting mini-warehouse (self-storage) uses in Lexington but asked that, should city council allow them conditionally in C-2 zoning, the council adopt detailed use and design standards developed by staff.
The Lexington Planning Commission voted to recommend that city council prohibit mini-warehouse (self-storage) uses in the city. The motion passed unanimously at Thursday’s meeting.
Planning staff presented a final draft of use and design standards prepared after multiple revisions and public outreach; the packet included a proposed change to the municipal definition of “mini-warehouse” to require multi-story structures. Staff described the standards as intended to prevent large, blank-walled storage buildings and to ensure that, if permitted, facilities would meet higher design expectations.
Key elements of the proposed design and use standards include restricting outdoor storage and auctions, prohibiting motor-vehicle servicing and storage of flammable liquids, requiring a designated contact person for the property, forbidding tenant identification signs for advertising, and encouraging a multi-story building form that resembles commercial, office or residential architecture rather than a monolithic storage warehouse. The draft also specifies primary exterior materials such as brick or masonry veneer, stone, textured concrete block and fiber-cement panel siding.
Some commissioners said they expect few such facilities will be proposed in Lexington but that the standards would raise the bar for any future proposals. “If somebody were to do it, it would be a nice facility,” one commissioner said, noting the city’s history of few applications for this use.
The commission’s motion directed that mini-warehouses be prohibited in Lexington; it also recorded that, if city council decides to continue allowing the use conditionally in the C-2 zoning district, the commission’s recommendation is that council adopt the staff-recommended use and design standards enumerated in the report. Staff noted council can consider the ordinance amendment after the required advertising period, with the earliest possible council consideration one month later.
The planning commission’s recommendation will be transmitted to city council for its public hearings and final decision.
