Atlanta officials have imposed a 150-day moratorium on issuing permits for self-storage facilities in its BeltLine Overlay Zoning District, an area designated for economic development and neighborhood revitalization. The temporary ban was urged by councilmember Joyce Sheperd, who has also introduced legislation to permanently prohibit self-storage from being built within a half-mile of the BeltLine corridor, according to the source.

The March 20 move comes weeks after a joint venture paid more than $4 million for a property on which it intends to develop a 120,000-square-foot storage facility in South Buckhead. Though the project was approved last year, the land is just off Peachtree Road along a future section of the BeltLine, the source reported.

“Storage-facility uses are incompatible with the purposes and intent of the BeltLine,” Sheperd wrote in the moratorium. “The Atlanta BeltLine project is transforming the city of Atlanta by improving the quality of life for all residents ... Transit-oriented development and mixed-use developments around the Atlanta BeltLine are imperative to promote pedestrian-oriented communities and future transit ridership.”

The Atlanta BeltLine Zoning Ordinance was adopted in February 2007. The district “provides a unique opportunity to bring together neighborhood revitalization, new development and workforce housing organized around a 22-mile corridor of transit, trails, open space, historic resources and public art,” according to the city’s website.

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