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Village clarifies outdoor storage rules, sets vehicle-count thresholds for special uses
Summary
Staff proposed clarifying industrial and commercial outdoor storage rules: special-use permits still required for large storage yards, but businesses may store up to five 'small' vehicles and up to three 'large' vehicles without a special use; trucks loading/unloading up to seven days are not considered storage and disconnected trailers are limited to three temporary/active units.
Colleen Malick, senior planner, presented revisions to the outdoor-storage chapter aimed at giving clearer guidance to businesses seeking to locate fleets or storage yards in commercial and industrial districts.
Under the draft, all outdoor storage areas would still require a special-use permit in the districts where such storage is allowed, but smaller business fleets would not trigger the special-use threshold: staff defined 'small vehicles' (passenger cars, vans, etc.) and 'large vehicles' (semi trucks, box trucks) and proposed that five or fewer small vehicles and three or fewer large vehicles not require a special use. Vehicles counted under that threshold must be parked in rear or interior side yards, on paved surfaces, and not occupy required parking spaces or block fire lanes.
For operational clarity, staff proposed that trucks actively loading or unloading for up to seven days not be treated as outdoor storage, while disconnected trailers kept on-site for short-term operations would be limited to three active units; counts or durations beyond that would require a special-use permit and site-plan review.
Trustees voiced general comfort with the clarifications and asked staff to return with final ordinance text. Staff said the clearer numeric thresholds should help staff and prospective businesses determine whether a property is viable without repeatedly applying special-use interpretations.
