May 22, 2017 - Fulfilling a commitment in the City’s 10-point Industrial Action Plan, which aims to strengthen core industrial areas, support industrial and manufacturing businesses and the job opportunities they produce for New Yorkers, the Department of City Planning today introduced a proposal for a special permit that would require the evaluation new self-storage facilities on a case-by case basis. The special permit would apply in designated areas that largely correspond to the City’s Industrial Business Zones, with the goal of ensuring that sites that would be optimal for job-intensive industrial uses are not lost to self-storage facilities. These facilities generally employ fewer people and serve personal rather than industrial business needs. Existing self-storage facilities would be permitted to remain and expand on sites they occupy. New facilities could open in these industrial areas subject to public review.

Areas in which the special permit would be required for new self-storage facilities are in portions of the following Community Districts:

Bronx: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12
Brooklyn: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18
Queens: 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13
Staten Island: 1, 2, 3

The affected community boards and the five borough presidents have 60 days to review the proposed change after which it returns to the City Planning Commission for a hearing and subsequent vote, followed by City Council review. For more information on the proposed special permit, maps of the respective areas in which it would be applicable or the review process for the self-storage proposal, see the DCP web page.