Officials in St. Louis Park, Minn., are working on changes to the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance that would define self-storage as a conditional, permitted use within industrial parks and general industrial-zoning districts but prevent it from being allowed in business parks. The city prefers a plan in which business-park districts are reserved for a mix of uses within existing structures or to promote new development. The industrial areas in which self-storage would be allowed tend to be along freeways and railroad corridors, according to the source.

“We identified in the land-use study that self-storage was allowed in the business-park district because it was grouped in with warehousing and storage, and so our desire here is to eliminate that use from the business-park district and limit that only to industrial areas,” planning and zoning supervisor Sean Walther told the source.

Central to the discussion is a 13-acre site at 3745 Louisiana Ave. that houses a former Sam’s Club store. The property is near a planned Southwest Light Rail Transit station along Louisiana Avenue. The zoning changes were prompted by the city’s desire to promote “transit-oriented” development in the area, allowing for at least 500 housing units and 98 jobs, the source reported. The site has been under a yearlong development moratorium, which was extended last month for another 120 days.

On Sept. 3, the city council voted 6-0 to change zoning at the site from commercial to transit-oriented development. The plan is to change the northern half of the property from general commercial to a business park and designate the southern half for high-density residences. Self-storage would be excluded, according to Walther.

The city council is scheduled to take a final vote on Sept. 16, after which it will submit its comprehensive-plan changes to the Metropolitan Council, a policy-making body serving the Twin Cities region that can either accept or reject such amendments.

Source:
Sun Sailor, St. Louis Park Council Votes to Rezone Former Sam’s Club Site