MANSFIELD — James Boyd moved one step closer to the finish line on Tuesday toward a new mini-storage facility he said could be a positive economic development for the city’s southeast side.
The Mansfield Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to City Council that 10 acres of land Boyd owns at 475 S. Diamond St. be rezoned to a neighborhood business district (B-1).
Local lawmakers are scheduled to conduct a public hearing on the request at their March 5 meeting and then vote on the issue.
“My great-grandparents lived on Diamond Street years and years ago. That always used to be the way I’d come into town,” Boyd said after the meeting.
“I just thought it was a really underutilized area and community and I thought it would be a great opportunity. I’ve always wanted to do self-storage as a project and I thought that area was in desperate need because there are a lot of old homes, century-old homes, that don’t have the proper, adequate storage,” Boyd said.
He said the mini-storage development will only use about a third of the 10 acres.
“The remaining balance of it leaves room for us to add on. But I also want to work with a local friend of mine who is an attorney in town who has a land conservatory. We talked about doing that because, as a developer, I want to be a responsible developer who comes in and says, ‘Hey, if it works for you, it works for me. And if it works for the city, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing this.’ That’s the approach that I’ve taken,” Boyd said.
He said his project could trigger more investment into that area of the city.
“If somebody comes in investing money into a little corner of our neighborhood, maybe we can get other people to start making more investments. I feel like that area is right for re-development. That was kind of my goal behind it. I thought I could make an improvement on it. And I really think I can,” Boyd said.
It’s currently zoned for mobile homes and multi-family residences.
Boyd has bounced back and forth between the Planning Commission and City Council for the last few months as he and city officials worked to find the best way to proceed with the project.
Community Development & Housing Director Adrian Ackerman told commission members Boyd originally sought to have the land rezoned for general business (B-2).
“That was sent to council and was ultimately denied at council because of the other potential businesses that could be put there. We kind of went back to the drawing board a little bit and came to the conclusion that warehouse storage is not typically a disruptive business as most other B2s are and that it may be a better fit under B1 (with) conditionally permitted circumstances,” Ackerman said.
“So we did bring that back to this commission. This commission voted to go ahead and send that ordinance modification off to council. That was received very well and ultimately approved to (send back to the planning commission),” Ackerman said.
Boyd said his mini-storage could be a benefit to small business owners, as well as residents.
“Here’s the big thing, and this is where I was trying to sell them on the idea of a small business community park, instead of an industrial park. A lot of people are e-commerce that have businesses. If you sell candles or soap and you have material and you don’t want to store it at your house, or if you’re in the (building) trades, people need between 300 to 1,000 square feet of space.
“We just don’t offer that here in Mansfield. That was something that I wanted to try to be, a little more innovative, and say, ‘OK, how can we be like an incubator, similar to what Braintree does, but we’re giving you that little bit of space, a little power?'” Boyd said.
New faces on Mansfield Planning Commission
New Mayor Jodie Perry presided over her first commission meeting since taking office earlier this month. She was joined by new Public Works Director Louis Andres, now also a commission member.
Two more new members took their seats on the commission on Tuesday — architect Matthew Stanfield, who owns FIELD9: architecture; and Chad Owens, senior survey/engineering technician at K.E. McCartney & Associates.