Lakeway City Council agreed March 21 that under certain conditions, a storage facility—now zoned C-2 that includes warehouses—can fit within a special-use permit for a C-1 commercial tract that generally includes retail and office uses.
Council members considered a preliminary plan presented by developer Tom DeCicco to construct a new storage facility in Lakeway Town Center at 2111 Lohmans Crossing Road, Lakeway. Although the tract is zoned C-1, DeCicco asked council members if they would consider granting him a special-use permit to allow for his storage facility, a nonconforming use that belongs within a C-2 zoned tract.
Deputy City Manager Chessie Zimmerman presented a draft ordinance amendment to the C-1 zoning ordinance.
Zimmerman said DeCicco’s project would provide a benefit to the city because DeCicco agreed to remove an unsightly older storage facility—Stow Away Storage—on property he owns nearby at 2051 Lohmans Spur, Lakeway, redevelop the tract with an office building, and remove asphalt and provide a greenbelt area at the Lohmans Spur site.
DeCicco said he would design the storage facility to look like an office building and house businesses in its front portion with storage in the rear, allowing tenants to have a warehouse adjacent to their sales floors.
The proposed storage facility is already 95 percent leased, he said.
“The [Lakeway storage] market itself is severely underserved,” RPM Storage Management owner Monty Rainey said. “According to the Texas Self Storage Association, in urban markets throughout Texas, you will find 12.5 to 13 square feet [of storage] per capita. Here, in the Lakeway market, we’re looking at about 5 [square feet].”
Council members said they were concerned the project would provide a cut-through for traffic entering or exiting nearby Oaks at Lakeway shopping center. They also cited concerns about drafting the ordinance solely for DeCicco’s situation.
In April 2014, Lakeway amended its comprehensive plan to push industrial uses north of Kollmeyer Drive on RR 620, including C-2 projects such as storage facilities.
“There are a number of other storage facilities in town—some that were developed in compliance with our code and some that were not,” Zimmerman said. “So, it’s a little bit of a balancing act to create language that is specific enough that there aren’t loopholes but, at the same time, not exclusive to this site.”
Council Member Sandy Cox said the council declined a competitor’s request to put a storage facility in a C-1 zoned tract.
“From a precedence standpoint we were pretty emphatic [in the previous application] that we weren’t going to have any C-2 [in the C1 corridor below Kollmeyer Drive],” she said.
Mayor Joe Bain and Council Member Dave Taylor said the difference in the applications is that DeCicco’s request provided a benefit to the city.
“They are offering us something the other [applicant] didn’t,” Taylor said. They’re going to give us a greenbelt [and] tear down the other [storage facility], which was an eyesore.”
Zimmerman said she felt the new special-use permit conditions were a “high standard but not a standard that could not be achieved by others.”
Council agreed to amend the C-1 ordinance after additional research.
Although DeCicco filed a special use permit application for the project April 7, a zoning amendment would be a prerequisite to city council approval, Zimmerman said.
