The Planning Commission on Tuesday denied a request to expand a mini storage facility near a future light rail station, holding out for the possibility of mixed-use, transit-oriented development over what they deemed a suburban, car-oriented use.
The owner of Life Storage at 8227 N. Lamar Blvd. requests a rezoning to Commercial Services – Mixed-Use (CS-MU-NP) to allow more storage units on the site. The current zoning is Limited Industrial (LI-NP).
The property is near the future North Lamar Transit Center light rail station, as well as within an Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) planning area.
While it will likely be more than a decade before trains roll down this stretch of North Lamar (it is not in the first phase of light rail), commissioners nonetheless argued that now is the time to create a more transit-oriented neighborhood.
“This is where we really want to have vibrant businesses or civic uses or cultural uses or residential uses,” said Commissioner Awais Azhar, who made the motion to deny the rezoning.
Robert Heil, representing Life Storage, said that there is strong demand for more units at the facility, and that allowing mixed-use zoning would make redevelopment into something other than storage units easier in the future.
But some commissioners argued that such a redevelopment is unlikely to come anytime soon. “They’re going to create a development that will last potentially for decades,” Commissioner João Paulo Connolly said of the storage unit expansion.
The decision to deny the rezoning was not without controversy. The motion passed on a 7-3-2 margin, with commissioners Patrick Howard, Grayson Cox and Adam Haynes voting against and Jennifer Mushtaler and Nadia Barrera-Ramirez abstaining.
“If this is going to redevelop into a much denser area with mixed uses, it may actually be smart to have a dense, tall self-storage facility,” Cox said, adding that people could walk from their apartments.
Cox also argued that the commission would likely have approved the rezoning had it not been clear that storage units were planned.
Chair Todd Shaw said he appreciated the business case for more storage units, but he argued that the commission has to plan for what the neighborhood should look like in the future. “We have to start the transformation now – I mean, we are the Planning Commission,” he said.
City Council will have the final say on the rezoning.
The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.
And we’re honored you look to us for serious, in-depth news. You know a strong community needs local and dedicated watchdog reporting. We’re here for you and that won’t change. Now will you take the powerful next step and support our nonprofit news organization?
City of Austin Planning Commission: This commission addresses issues of land use as assigned to it by Austin's City Code. These include the abilities "[t]o make and amend a master plan, recommend approval or disapproval of proposed zoning changes and control land subdivision within neighborhood planning areas and submit, annually, a list of recommended capital improvements." It has sovereign authority, or the right to make final decisions on certain cases.
