Milton planners approve YourSpace preliminary application
The Milton Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a preliminary site-plan application for YourSpace Storage to build a self-storage facility on Route 16, but not without conditions.
Developer Peak Management must submit lighting, landscaping and stormwater plans for public hearings at the time of final site-plan review.
Peak Management is seeking to build a self-storage complex that would include a 109,000-square-foot, three-story main building, along with a garage, office space and a one-story, 2,400-square-foot accessory building for additional self-storage. The company has 11 storage facilities, primarily in Baltimore and Frederick counties in Maryland, with this to be its first in Sussex County. The facility would be located across Route 16 from the proposed Royal Farms gas station and convenience store near the intersection of Route 16 and Union Street Extended.
While the property is zoned C-1 commercial, Peak Management first had to get a special-use permit because a storage facility is a special permitted use within that zoning district.
At the Jan. 17 meeting, David Hutt, attorney for Peak Management, said the company has met the 14 conditions imposed on the special-use permit. Hutt said the use of the property is consistent with what is envisioned in the town’s comprehensive development plan.
Ken Usab, architect on the project, said the main building, which fronts Route 16, is 39 feet high, and includes a center drive aisle leading to offices in the rear with parking around the main building.
For the commission, concerns centered around drainage. The site is surrounded by residential homes. Plans call for two stormwater management ponds on each side of the property facing Route 16 and a retention pond in the rear of the parcel, adjacent to several homes that back up to the parcel. Brian Miler of town engineer Pennoni Associates said the town does not have any separate requirements for stormwater management, as that is usually handled by Sussex Conservation District and reviewed by the commission at final site-plan review.
Commissioner Jeff Seemans said, “What really scares me is that there just doesn’t seem to be any natural outfall from this main stormwater management area. It’s in a tight, enclosed area, either by adjacent properties or by Route 16 or by your own parking and paving.”
He said the site data shows a little more than 1.5 acres planned for impervious surface, either from the roadways or the buildings, leaving little place for water to go should the stormwater ponds overflow.
“With no obvious outfall to some adjacent stream or some other water body, you’ve got basically a solid, impervious area. What happens to the water if this overflows?” Seemans said.
Usab said safety factors are built into state regulations that Peak Management will have to address prior to final site-plan approval. He said there are examples of sites using underground piping or on-site storage of excess stormwater that can be mimicked at this site.
Other concerns include a 25-foot continuous landscape buffer along the south end of the property and the lighting plan.
Neighbors around the proposed facility also had their own issues with the proposal.
Union Street resident Michaela Coffaro raised questions about the drainage plan, but also questioned why the town needed so many storage facilities; another self-storage facility is proposed on the other side of Route 16 next to Dollar General, and there is an existing facility near Beaches Seafood.
Collins Street resident Allan Benson said, “We don’t need another storage facility. It doesn’t do anything for the town.”
