ONTARIO — Mini warehouses were a major topic of discussion during a public hearing Wednesday at Ontario City Council.
Lawmakers are set to vote in July on a proposed amendment to the city’s zoning code that would allow mini warehouses, or storage units, as a conditionally permitted use in the city’s business districts.
Landowner Troy Nash has requested the change in zoning code so he can move forward with his plan to build storage units at the corner of West Fourth Street and Rock Road. The city planning commission recommended against it.
Several residents of Hemlock Place spoke against the proposed changes.
Nash owns the northwest corner of the vacant field directly north of the Hemlock Place.
Residents voiced a number of concerns, ranging from safety and an increase in turnaround traffic to a potential decrease in property values.
Tracy Sansalone, a 26-year resident of Hemlock Place, said she believed storage units would negatively impact the aesthetic of the area.
“This entryway is a gateway to our beautiful city, to our beautiful parks,” she said. “We are a cul-de-sac. We have little children.”
James Ousley said he’d spoken with several storage unit operators in the area and believes the city already has enough.
“There’s four sites of storage units in the city limits right now, within those sites, there’s 951 units,” he said. “After talking with representatives from each of the four locations, I was told that there’s about 49.5 percent of those units are unrented.”
Nash also addressed council. He dismissed residents’ concerns about flooding and traffic.
“There will be no death and destruction from these storage units, like they’re stating,” Nash said.
“It does not affect them in this devastating fashion they’re stating. They just don’t want them.”
Nash also said he purchased the land after consulting with an employee in the Ontario city engineer’s office who told him he could build storage units there.
That was two years ago. According to the Richland County Auditor’s Site, Nash’s LLC Super Storage Plus purchased the three-acre plot in June 2023.
“I do have some empathy with you that you bought the property based on (that employee’s) statements to you at the time, and they were right at the time,” Council President Eddie Gallo said.
“But as the city, we have to have the right to make changes to zoning, amendments to resolutions, in order to move the city forward,” Gallo said.
City council is set to vote on the proposed amendment during its July 23 meeting. Gallo said community members who wish to express their opinion on the matter can do so during the public comment portion of council meetings.
Council rescheduled its meetings next month to July 9 and 23 due to Independence Day.
Council voted to restrict mini warehouses in March
The state of storage unit zoning in Ontario is complicated.
According to safety service director Adam Gongwer, there are four storage unit facilities within the city. All of them are located in business-zoned districts.
“Three of them, we believe, are grandfathered in. They were built before the zoning overlay map was created,” Gongwer said.
The fourth is a Menards self-storage facility on Walker Lake Road, which council approved via a conditional-use request in 2022.
That project generated complaints of dust, debris, stormwater and drainage issues from nearby residents.
Meanwhile, Ontario’s city ordinances caused some confusion over whether or not storage units were an allowable use of business district land.
Gongwer said the issue came to light after someone called him in September to ask if they could build storage units along Park Avenue West.
“That’s when we discovered that it was not conditionally permitted in business districts,” Gongwer said.
“It was listed in our business design standards, but not in the business district as a conditional use.”
Council voted in March to remove mini warehouses from the city’s business district design standards, restricting them to industrial zones.
Gallo said Nash has accused the city administration of purposefully blocking his business plans.
“I can assure you that that’s not the case. Nobody on this council knew anything about your plan at that point,” Gallo told Nash during the meeting.
“The assertion that you made to the law director, that this was a personal thing that we were doing against you, is completely unfounded.”