ATLANTA, Ga. — Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens issued an executive order pausing new construction on self-storage facilities.
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Critics say this land could be used to benefit the community with things like affordable housing, banks or grocery stores.
The Atlanta City Council is looking at ways to make it harder for storage facility companies to build.
One Atlanta resident, Stephen Parker, admits he’s used a storage facility once before, but he agrees with the mayor’s order.
“I kind of agree with the mayor in the sense that we’re looking for making more affordable housing,” Parker said.
The executive order is only good until the next city council meeting, but the city has previously banned storage facilities in certain parts of the city like the Beltline Overlay district.
Atlanta City Council member Dustin Hills has been working on his own legislation to extend the mayor’s moratorium. His idea is to require these self-storage companies to jump through more bureaucratic hoops to get a building permit to see if the city could better use the land.
“Is this being constructed by a large affordable housing complex where we don’t need a self storage facility? Do we need a bank? Do we need a restaurant? Do we need more affordable housing on this lot?” Hills said.
Another Atlanta resident said she supports the moratorium.
“I appreciate that we need to stop doing things so quickly and start taking the time to really consider what is going on, how this is affecting the community and what can actually be done,” said Jillian Jenkins. “And maybe also getting the community’s input.”
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot reached out to the Self-Storage Association for comment.
The president of the association, Timothy Dietz, wrote back and said the self-storage industry often suffers from misconceptions. He said many tenants are in transition or live in small dwellings so they need storage space.
Dietz called the self-storage industry a critical component of the mobile engine of our country.
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