City Council Slams the Brakes on new Self Storage Facilities
The Bainbridge Island City County is working on creating an ordinance that will outlaw the creation of new self-storage facilities on the island.
At a recent meeting, the City Council ordered City Manager Morgan Smith to work with her staff to develop an ordinance that would eliminate self-storage facilities in both Neighborhood Service Centers, such as Rolling Bay, and in Business/Industrial Zones.
Previously, the council slapped a moratorium on self-service storage facilities (Ordinance 2020-12) and ordered staff to provide additional information and analysis on how best to regulate these businesses.
So far, here's what city staffers have discovered:
-- There are eight existing self-storage facilities on the island totaling approximately 286,000 square feet;
-- There are two proposed facilities - one new and one an expansion - that could add approximately 109,000 additional square feet of self-storage to the island;
-- The vacancy rate of seven of the eight surveyed is on average 5 percent;
-- Tenants are split between residential users and commercial users, with residential customers accounting for 78 percent of the total;
-- The average self-storage facility space on Bainbridge Island is 9 square feet per person and would jump to 13 square feet per person if the above proposals were approved;
-- Nationwide, the average square footage of self-storage facility use is 5.4 square feet per person;
-- The total number of jobs generated by Bainbridge self-storage facilities is 9.5 jobs.
As this effort moves forward, the city will draft an ordinance to prohibit the building of new self-storage facilities while allowing existing ones to expand.
The City Council is racing to put a new self-storage ordinance in place to meet a Nov. 26 moratorium expiration deadline.
Helping our Businesses Survive (and thrive) through e-commerce
The Chamber of Commerce and City Councilman Joe Deets, along other partners, such as the Downtown Association, are working on efforts to support businesses in ur new, (almost virtual) economy.
Our SOS (Save Our Stores and Businesses) campaign was launched several weeks back (see details below), with financial support coming from the City of Bainbridge Island and the CARES Act.
Simply put, that effort is aimed at getting locals - and visitors - to shop and do business on the island by supporting their favor stores, restaurants, museums, health clubs, consultants and so on and so forth.
The next possible step is providing local businesses with the with-withal to do online commerce, whether it's selling clothing, pizza or architectural services. These days, most businesses have a web site, but not all are able to sell their products or services online.
The Chamber and Deets and company are hoping to tap into additional CARES Act money to support a sort of e-commerce training hub, where interested businesses can learn first hand from industry experts on how to do real business online - from completing a transaction, to shipping and receiving products to marketing themselves to Bainbridge customers and many others wider world.
If all goes according to plan and businesses catch on, there could also develop a localized online "general store," where locals and other interested customers could check out Bainbridge products and services and possibly makes purchases.
"We're in the discovery period now," says Deets. "Anything is possible."
If you are an island business that might be interested in learning more about e-commerce and what it could mean for your business, please contact Chamber President/CEO, Kevin Dwyer, kevin@bainbridgechamber.com
Building Moratorium to Continue?
The City Council is aiming to possibly extend the current development moratorium another six months. The moratorium, which applies primarily to projects within the Winslow Master Plan Study Area, is set to expire on Oct. 3.
It went in to effect in January 2018.
The council is doing so to allow city staff to catch up with certain regulatory aspects of the moratorium before it is officially terminated. Developments that have at least 10 percent affordable housing within them are allowed to proceed during the building ban.
