Atlanta is pumping the brakes on new self-storage facilities, giving city officials six months to decide whether neighborhoods really need more places to stash old furniture.
The Atlanta City Council unanimously approved a 180-day moratorium on new self-storage construction during its Monday, July 6, full Council meeting. City officials say the pause will give Atlanta time to craft new land-use rules aimed at building more vibrant communities, walkable corridors and neighborhood-serving development instead of letting storage facilities gobble up prime space.
The measure, Ordinance 26-O-1396, was one of several pieces of legislation passed at the meeting.
District 9 Councilmember Dustin Hillis, the ordinance’s lead sponsor, said the city wants “more vibrant commercial corridors, more walkable neighborhoods, and more affordable housing.”
The moratorium, Hillis said, gives officials time to ask a basic but apparently necessary question before another storage facility gets built: does the area actually need one? Or, he said, would residents be better served by affordable housing, a restaurant, a bank or another use that brings more life to the street?
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