The long-dormant former Borders bookstore building at 700 New Hampshire St. is one step closer to being developed as a self-storage facility.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend approval of a special use permit to allow the building to be used for that purpose.
The building has been largely vacant for about 15 years, since 2011.
Its current owner, Urban Row LLC, has owned it for about a year and a half, Paul Werner, of Paul Werner Architects, told the planning commission on Wednesday. Its condition had deteriorated over the prior decade-plus.
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Werner said the storage units would be a mix of 5-by-5 and 5-by-10-foot units. The storage would be climate-controlled.
Plans are to add a garage door on the east side of the building to allow vehicular access into the building. No other external doors would be added to the building.
One condition of the special use permit is that “The historic walls of the structure are repaired and maintained with emphasis on the historic stable wall.” Members of the Historic Resources Commission signed off on the plans during their meeting on Oct. 18.
Werner said downtown businesses could save money by storing items there rather than in part of a space on Massachusetts Street. He also said there are a lot of small condos and apartments in the area, and residents might appreciate additional storage space nearby.
Lynne Braddock Zollner, historic resources administrator for the city, told the planning commission that staff recommended approval of the permit.
“We have seen a lot of redevelopment in this area of downtown, and we don’t want to slow that down or negate anything by having this be a dull spot,” she said. “And so if you could activate those storefronts … and you don’t have the glare of lighting from the corridor of a self-storage interior use, that that could be very positive for the neighborhood.”
Some neighbors and some representatives of Downtown Lawrence Inc. wrote comments in opposition to the project, but no one spoke to the planning commission about it during the meeting.
“There is no precedent for a storage facility downtown, and we do not believe that this would be an ideal time or place to introduce development in downtown that wouldn’t help move the needle in regards to density, downtown residential population, or downtown foot traffic,” the DLI representatives wrote.
No exterior storage would be allowed, and the operational hours would be limited to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Lawrence City Commission will have the final vote on the special use permit.
See the complete agenda item at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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