Santa Fe Springs, CA, to Lift Restriction on Limiting Self-Storage Development

Officials in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., are set to lift a 43-year restriction that banned self-storage facilities from being developed along the city’s major thoroughfares. The city council agreed to eliminate the ban last week and is expected to give final approval at its Sept. 28 meeting, according to the source.

Instituted by the council in 1974 largely for aesthetic reasons, the ban prohibited self-storage from being built within 1,000 feet of commercial areas, homes, parks and schools, the source reported. Though the city has approved self-storage along major streets by issuing variances to the restriction, its removal from city code should make it easier for developers to pursue storage projects.

“If you look at mini-warehouses now, they’re not the long rectangular structure,” said Wayne Morrell, director of planning. “Their architecture has changed. Their design has changed. They’re more contemporary.”

Though the city hasn’t received any complaints about the architecture of the storage facilities that have received variances, self-storage will still be restricted from Telegraph Road, according to councilmember Richard Moore.

“We have a higher vision and use for the Telegraph,” Morrell told the source. “It’s a major thoroughfare through the city and should have commercial and office uses.”

The lifting of the ban was prompted by Florida-based Simply Self Storage (SSS), which acquired a 2-acre property at 13461 Rosecrans Ave., but couldn’t move forward with its development plans because of the restriction. “We pointed out to them there are existing self-storage units built on primary and secondary highways,” Brandon Dickens, vice president of development for SSS, told the source.

SSS expects to begin construction at the site next year once the new law takes effect.

Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., SSS was founded in 2003. The company owns or manages more than 230 self-storage facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico comprising more than 18 million square feet.