Summary:
This is a city-initiated text amendment to the Zoning Ordinance pertaining to Self-Storage and Boat, RV and Trailer Storage facilities. More specifically, the city is seeking modifications to Section 21-202 “Definitions”, 21-503 “Land Use Matrix”, and 21-505 “Limitations on Uses”.
If approved, staff believes these code modifications will assist in ensuring that the best-positioned land remaining within the City of Peoria will be safeguarded for higher job generating employers, while also retaining measured growth opportunity for the storage industry given its ancillary impact on small businesses.
Background and Context:
As part of the overarching City Council priority area for economic development, Peoria is aggressively pursuing opportunities and strategies to promote a thriving, balanced and dynamic economy, which capitalize on the City's strengths and supports local job growth and economic expansion. In this regard, it is important that the best positioned vacant or underutilized land be protected for land uses that are in furtherance of this larger objective. More recently, there is growing concern that low job-generating industries such as Self-Storage and Boat & RV Facilities will continue to absorb key strategic commercial and employment corridor areas within Peoria.
While some sites are uniquely suited for self-storage facilities, when they consume the best-positioned sites, this reduces the opportunities for higher order economic expansion and balance. To this end, the city is proposing this code amendment to ensure that the best-positioned land remaining within the City of Peoria is better safeguarded.
Context:
There are approximately thirty-two (32) existing Self-Storage and Boat & RV facilities within Peoria city limits. Additionally, one (1) property was specifically zoned for these types of uses, along with two (2) active cases under consideration. Cumulatively, this equates to a total of thirty-five (35) existing and proposed facilities within Peoria city limits. Of the thirty-five (35), twenty-eight (28) are Indoor or Drive-Up facilities. (Or alternatively 80% are Indoor or Drive-Up storage facilities, and 20% of the facilities are Boat & RV only.) There are also twelve (12) additional facilities within one (1) mile of city limits within outlying County islands and adjoining municipalities. In all, there are currently forty-seven (47) either existing or planned facilities within and immediately surrounding the City of Peoria.
It is also important to put those forty-seven facilities within and adjacent to the Peoria limits into perspective, as it does not represent total saturation of self-storage facilities at full city built out; rather, there is significant land left to develop within Peoria.
While the pace of private land being developed in Peoria has continued to be brisk, the result is that now over 75 percent of the remaining undeveloped land is managed by the Arizona State Land Department. This land is both strategic in its regional location, and critical in expanding the City Council’s economic employment objectives, as well as the goals outlined within the voter approved Peoria General Plan. Given the concentration and clustering of existing facilities within developed areas of the community, there is concern that continued unchecked growth has potential to detrimentally impact future growth areas in a similar fashion.
Lastly, the storage industry is by its nature a low job creator, which is discussed further herein. With that said, it does provide auxiliary or secondary small-scale inventory support for existing small businesses within the community, along with providing long-term and transitory storage for Peoria residents during their various life stages. As such, any code provision or regulatory changes should not only advance the City forward in achieving the stated economic prosperity objectives, but it should also retain measured growth opportunity for the storage industry given its ancillary impact on small businesses. Further analysis and justification for the proposed code refinements are provided below.
Proposed Regulations:
As originally conceived in the draft submitted for public comment in January 2024, there were four primary methodologies and objectives being utilized within the code amendment to ensure the best-positioned land is not consumed for self-storage facilities. Subsequent to multiple industry conversations and study sessions before the Commission, city staff refined the methodologies and objectives to be as follows:
- Create new stand-alone definitions for Self-storage, Indoor and Drive-Up and Boat, Recreational Vehicle & Trailer Storage to recognize character and operational differences.
- Update the Zoning District Land Use Matrix for non-residential areas showing where these facilities are permitted by right or would be allowed subject to obtaining a Conditional Use Permit (CUP).
- Establishes maximum acreage for Self-Storage (Indoor and Drive-Up) facilities to address character concerns and potential dominance of the use.
- Modify location siting requirements to address potential for proliferation and oversaturation in key economic development corridors and areas; and
- Establishes updated operational limitations to address typical neighborhood concerns.
These key concepts inform the framework from which the specific provisions or regulations were developed from. Given the refinements to the objectives and framework, the draft regulations similarly evolved as well. Refer to Exhibit 1 for the complete list of changes to each of the code sections. For ease of use, staff provided a less technical Code Briefing Sheet which synthesized the proposed provisions, which is attached herein as well. As a direct result of this constructive dialog, there are now more items of agreement between city staff and industry representatives within the proposed code; however, key differences remain and are discussed in depth below.
Finally, it is important to note that active development cases will not be impacted by the proposed changes. More specifically within the Ordinance presented to City Council for consideration, it is intended to include the following exclusionary provision: Development cases for Self-Storage or Boat & RV Storage facilities that are active prior to the adoption of the ordinance will be exempt from the proposed regulations.
Public Outreach:
During the code amendment process, there have been a number of touch points to ensure interested parties had the opportunity to comment on the proposal. At the March 21, 2024 Planning and Zoning Commission study session, staff presented an overview of the outreach methods and results to date. These efforts included website publication, business brief e-newsletter, targeted stakeholder email, an open house, stakeholder meeting, and two study sessions with Planning Commission as outlined in Exhibit 2.
Public Noticing
The application was properly noticed pursuant to Section 21-315 of the Peoria Zoning Ordinance, which includes placing a legal ad in the Peoria Times at least 15 days prior to the Public Hearing.
Support / Opposition
Over the duration of the outreach process, six (6) letters of support were received from residents, and six (6) letters in opposition from industry representatives. All correspondence received about the proposal is included within Exhibit 2.
Key Findings:
- The amendment is consistent with the goals, and policies contained within the adopted Peoria General Plan and the City Council’s economic development focus area.
- Definition are now more in-line with industry nomenclature, better describe the representative uses, and reduces areas of conflict within the Zoning Code.
- Proposed regulations maintain a better balance between meeting the city’s concerns regarding proliferation of these facilities and the industry’s desire for growth.
- Existing avenues remain unchanged with this proposal, and allow developers to seek exceptions from the regulations where these types of facilities are appropriate and compatible with the surrounding area.