Rock Hill says no more self-storage business sites, for now. What’s next?

Rock Hill now has temporarily halted approving more self-storage sites.

Rock Hill City Council voted Nov. 12 to halt new self-storage and mini warehouse sites for six months. The decision mirrors and finalizes a preliminary decision from October.

“It’s really just there to give us a pause,” said Mayor John Gettys. “It gives us time where we can all get around the table and see what might work, instead of where we make it feel like people go to their corners.”

Gettys said there hasn’t been a rush on new storage site proposals since Council voted in October.

“I’m not aware of any new proposals,” he said, “but we had several that came up prior to first reading.”

A September development report for the city listed three new proposed sites. Also, Kmart Plaza on Cherry Road sold to a company specailizing in storage sites and apartment construction.

City leaders talked ahead of the October vote about a “proliferation” of proposals in recent months.

Rock Hill isn’t alone. Lake Wylie has seen a more than doubling of self-storage sites in recent years. The Fort Mill and Tega Cay areas have added sites. Go Store It has application in now with York County for a 105,000-square-foot site on Crisanto Avenue near Fort Mill.

York County has at least nine sites where property owners have approached the county within the past month, eyed either for storage sites, warehousing or expanded storage at businesses.

Self-storage sites, experts say, tend to follow population growth and a strong economy. Gettys said so many self-storage proposals are yet another sign of local growth.

“Being the fastest growing county in the country, this is one of those things that no one saw coming,” he said.

Now city staff will be given time to look at which zoning districts should or shouldn’t allow self-storage sites, and where it might be compatible with other types of growth.

Rock Hill isn’t the first municipality to look at whether and where to allow storage sites. One reason for the “proliferation” of sites on S.C. 160 near Tega Cay, said that city’s planning director Susan Britt, is Tega Cay doesn’t allow them inside the city.

There was “quite a bit of interest” from storage site companies back in 2015 when Tega Cay City Council took up the issue. The city hadn’t allowed them prior.

“Council was adamant, we don’t want them,” Britt said.

The same factors bringing sites to Rock Hill and other places would have brought them to Tega Cay, she said, and are a reason why the county gets so many requests near Tega Cay.

“We were very proactive because we saw it coming,” Britt said.

John Marks: jmarks@fortmilltimes.com; @JohnFMTimes

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 3:14 PM.