Port Royal blocks storage units in high-profile spots. One landowner isn’t on board

Port Royal Town Council members unanimously voted Wednesday to ban personal storage units in several high-profile locations in a move that was mostly applauded but came over the objection of one landowner.

Storage units remain a permitted use in other districts in the town.

Under the new ordinance, personal storage units are no longer a permitted use in a zoning district known as “T4 Neighborhood Center-Open.” That is a subzone of T4 Neighborhhood Center that permits a wider range of office and service uses and it includes some 20 properties fronting some of the town’s busiest roads including Highway 170, Parris Island Gateway, Robert Smalls Parkway and the Savannah Highway.

Rebecca Bass, a real estate agent who led the effort to put the brakes on storage rentals, said she was “delighted” by the council’s action.

“What we have here is very special,” she said of Port Royal, “and if we’re not careful we will end up as ‘anywhere USA,’ which is what the comprehensive plan says they don’t want to become.”

The approval came over the objection of Bennett McNeil, whose family owns a seven-acre parcel at the intersection of Highway 21 and Wrights Point Lane that is located in the affected zone. A small, gated, secure and safe personal storage facility could exist in the in the district, Bennett argued. He asked that the ordinance be delayed for 120 days until he could bring a site layout and design exhibits before the council.

While the supporters of reigning in storage units are well-intentioned, Bennett said, many residents in Port Royal live in small houses or apartments and need conveniently located storage units for their extra possessions.

“My guess is they don’t know about these meetings,” Bennett said. “Many many not know where City Hall is.”

But Bass and several other residents appeared regularly before the Planning Commission and later the Town Council to make their case that the town already has too many storage units. They argued Port Royal was becoming the “storage capital of the Lowcountry.” Remaining open land in “T4 Neighborhood Center-Open zone,” they said, should be used to in ways that compliment the town’s sensitive environment and “cool, coastal and far from ordinary” reputation.

The ordinance became effective upon its final passage Wednesday, which came on a 5-0 vote.