Sometimes it takes losing a little to win a lot. That's the case in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where residents in one neighborhood supported the development of a nearby self-storage facility, which successfully earned the approval of the local planning commission for a permit.

According to an article in the Ventura County Star, to win the convenience of nearby storage, the neighborhood must say goodbye to five old oak trees that are rooted along the border between the residential zone and the industrial zone, smack dab in the middle of the new self-storage zone.

The removal of five oaks in a city that obviously prides itself on its quantity of trees didn't come without a few splinters. Some residents weren't as enthused about a new self-storage neighbor, writing letters to the local newspaper to stop the project from ever breaking ground. But surprisingly, few of the letters even mentioned the removal of the trees, choosing to focus on more timely issues.

"In these times of rising unemployment and dwindling city revenues, city of Thousand Oaks officials see fit to allow development of a self-storage facility that employs a whopping total of two people and which generates not one penny of sales tax for our city," writes one opponent of the project in a letter to the Acorn. "Is this the best use of what little developable land this city has left? Do we really need another storage facility in a city that already has 10?"

Of course, the letter writer makes a valuable point. One would hope that the developer of the proposed Duesenberg Self Storage has done his due diligence and feasibility studies to support the need of the forthcoming project. A visit to the archives of Inside Self-Storage magazine articles provides numerous insights to predicting the future success of a specific site and proposed self-storage facility. If you're speculating on self-storage, please begin here!

And lest I leave you worrying about Thousand Oaks having to change its name to 995 Oaks, Calif., let me finish the story of the trees. The local planning commission stipulated that if five trees were removed from the site to make way for self-storage, they would have to be replaced. The city is adament about maintaining its collection of trees. Let's all hope it's just as careful with its storage development.