Shipping container self-storage business seeks to locate in this Wichita suburb
A new Haysville self-service storage warehouse business using cargo containers will be required to put up privacy screening after requesting an exemption.
The exemption was a topic of debate in the suburb’s City Council and planning commission, leading them to pause approving the business’s permit.
Tyler Carselowey is the owner of Kansas Outdoor Structures and the applicant for the new business, which would be at 7474 South Broadway Avenue.
“I’ve been in that industry for probably 14 years, probably now, and . . . I see a huge need for self storage,” Carselowey told The Eagle.
Haysville city code requires screening for cargo containers to shield the containers from the road’s view. In Carselowey’s case, that would mean screening 9 to 10 feet tall. Carselowey said he asked for the screening exemption because of safety concerns.
“We’ve kind of gone back and forth about the fencing and me doing chain link instead of having to do like a wood privacy fence or something like that . . . the chain link, we could put some kind of mesh on the outside, which I don’t think looks very good, or possibly slats,” Carselowey said. “For safety reasons, I really didn’t want to put the slats in there, because if somebody ever broke in there and was doing something they weren’t supposed to, it would be hard for anyone from the road to see what was going on.”
Carselowey originally planned to use a 6-foot chain link fence, instead of the 9- to 10-foot security screening that would be required.
The planning commission approved the exemption and recommended the permit be approved. But the City Council sent the proposal back over various concerns, including the exemption.
Tim Aziere, the planning commission chair, said at the June 11 planning meeting that he opposed the exemption because of what it could mean for future requests.
“For me, it comes down to the same thing we’ve talked about the whole time. If we allow (it) here, and his neighbor comes to us next month and says, ‘I want to put a cargo container in, and I want to put a 6-foot fence up because that’s what my neighbor has’ … I would like to not set that precedent,” Aziere said.
Carselowey said before the meeting that whatever the commission decided, he would work with the city.
“The city’s been great to work with, I have no complaints at all. If they want me to put slats up or put screening up in front of it, you know, we’ll do it if we need to,” Carselowey said.
The commission ultimately decided to remove the previously-recommended exemption, meaning the privacy screening would be required.
Rodent control and surveillance
Council members also said they were concerned about surveillance at the self-storage business, which the planning commission said they could not regulate.
“I don’t understand how we can regulate this at all, I think it needs to be done by the developer and if we’re putting the screening requirement in and he wants to have an additional level of security, I think that’s up to him to do so,” Aziere said.
Carselowey said that he is planning to use security cameras.
City Council members also were concerned that cargo containers could attract rodents seeking shelter.
“I think their argument was these containers because they have a bottom there’s the availability for rodents to get underneath them, but there’s also the availability for rodents to get in every other storage unit in town … code enforcement is regulating all of those, and I don’t see why this would be any different,” Aziere said.
Carselowey said he doesn’t see rodents becoming an issue.
“I actually have other shipping containers that I personally use . . . I’ve never had rodents underneath there,” Carselowey said. “Everything’s going to be either gravel or concrete underneath it, so unless they’re getting away from a predator, they’re not going to be standing underneath there to make a nest or to live.”
The planning commission unanimously approved the plat to be sent to council, this time with no exemptions or regulations. The original proposal also dictated that all cargo containers be the same color or in rows of the same color. Now that it would have required screening, the commission decided to remove that requirement.
The conditional use permit will still need to be approved by City Council. It will review the resolution at its July 11 meeting.
