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TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the Common Council FROM: Mark Lyons, Planning Services Manager DATE: August 27, 2024 SUBJECT: Res 24-487 Approve General Development Plan and Specific Implementation Plan for a Personal Storage Facility at 400 City Center (Plan Commission Recommends Approval) (Applicant Requests Laying Over until Applicant Requests Consideration)

BACKGROUND

The subject site consists of the City Center building, located at the southeast corner of Jackson Street and Division Street. The City Center building is enveloped by a 16.5-acre condo parcel. The surrounding parent parcel has four street frontages as well as frontage on the Riverwalk. The site was constructed in 1970 and has several commercial and institutional users, and the surrounding area consists primarily of commercial uses. The 2040 Comprehensive Land Use Plan recommends Center City use for the subject site.

ANALYSIS

The applicant is proposing to remodel the northern portion of the City Center building for a personal storage facility use, Extra Space Storage. The personal storage facility will use approximately 75,000 sq. ft. (10%) of the overall building. The applicant is requesting a base standard modification to allow the personal storage facility use as it is not permitted in the Central Mixed Use (CMU) District. According to the applicant, the site will have overhead doors for customer vehicle access and approximately 35 customer cars per day are anticipated. The applicant notes that insufficient parking has been a problem when the site is fully utilized. The storage use will result in a reduction of parking demand for the site as it will only need 4 parking spaces as compared to other commercial uses which have a higher parking demand. The applicant feels that this will help with future parking needs for the site. The applicant states that the space has been on the market for 2 years and has received no interest as the market for large office space has dramatically changed over the last 5 years. They also feel that the proposed use will provide needed storage space for nearby apartment tenants. The proposed building exterior modifications include closing the existing loading dock and providing glass overhead doors as well as painting the concrete panels and installing recyclable metal cladding on portions of the facades.  The applicant also proposes using spandrel glass in window openings to shield the view of the storage operations within the building.  This is intended to limit the industrial appearance and use of the site.  The applicant has submitted plans to remove existing building foundation landscaping for installation of new landscaping.  The new landscaping will result in 136% of the existing landscaping points in these areas, which is intended to offset the requested base standard modification (BSM) to allow the prohibited land use.  A Plan Commission (PC) workshop was held on May 21, 2024 to discuss the proposed plans. PC was generally supportive of the plans, but voiced concerns with storage along a major thoroughfare, Jackson Street. PC also felt that the proposed building updates could be an improvement to the appearance of the building and it may be an opportunity to add greenspace.

BOARD/COMMISSION INFORMATION

Staff expressed concerns with allowing a storage use within the CMU District as the zoning ordinance only allows this use within industrial zoning districts and the use may not fit the character of a downtown area. There are existing personal storage facilities within the City in mixed use zoning districts, such as U-Haul sites on Ohio Street and North Koeller Street, and CubeSmart on South Koeller Street. However, the U-Haul on Ohio Street is zoned Urban Mixed Use (UMU) and was established prior to the current zoning ordinance, making it a legal nonconforming use. The U-Haul and CubeSmart sites along Koeller Street are zoned Suburban Mixed Use (SMU) and were approved with the intent of including commercial out lots along the street frontage to buffer the storage facility from public view. The 2040 Comprehensive Land Use Plan recommendation of Center City is not intended to allow for storage or industrial uses.  The site is located within the Downtown Outer Core subarea of the Imagine Oshkosh Plan, which does not list storage or industrial uses as desired land uses.  Staff expressed concerns with setting a precedent of allowing a prohibited use that is inconsistent with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Imagine Oshkosh Plan for the Center City area. At the July 16, 2024 Plan Commission voiced support for the proposed use developed and made the below findings in support of the proposed development and as justification for the necessary Base Standard Modifications. The attached minutes provide further information related to their comments and decision-making.   Does not detract from the physical appearance of the area and actually improves the look of a building that is a long-term staple of our downtown area Produces a logical use for a downtown area that has limited storage opportunities The continued growth of the downtown area for residential use with multi-family housing will necessitate increased convenient self-storage

FISCAL IMPACT

Approval of this may result in an increase in the assessed property value for the site. The applicant is anticipating spending approximately $850,000 on the proposed project.

RECOMMENDATION

The Plan Commission recommended approval of the requested General Development Plan and Specific Implementation Plan for a personal storage facility at 400 City Center with findings and conditions as established on July 16, 2024. Please see the attached staff report and meeting minutes for more information.

Attachments RES 24-487 GDP SIP 400 City Center

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