Tom Breen Photo
U-Haul was able to put its self-storage facility in the old C. Cowles Company building on Water Street as of right.
Alders made it harder for self-storage facilities to spring up in the city but a little easier for cat cafés.
That’s the upshot of recent actions of the Board of Alders during its most recent bimonthly meeting at City Hall.
Alders unanimously approved a text amendment that clarifies what exactly a cat café is and adds a layer of regulatory oversight to the development of self-storage facilities. (Read more about that here.)
The cat cafe definition clarification is a bit of clean up work made necessary by the recent establishment of a new zone—the BA 2—for Westville Village center. Cat cafes like Mew Haven are allowed by special exception in the new BA 2 zone. But an actual definition of a cat cafe wasn’t included in the ordinance that governs such establishments.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Mew Haven owner Angela Pullo.
“Cat café: means any premises used to house or contain homeless, orphaned, or unwanted cats and that is owned, operated, or maintained by an organization that is licensed by the State as an animal shelter and devoted to the welfare, protection, and humane treatment of animals for the purpose of adoption, and which incorporates retail sales to support the interaction of patrons with cats, such as a café, bookshop, or other permitted use,” is how the new official language reads.
Alders also approved a text amendment that requires a special permit and a trip to the City Plan Commission for developers who want to put in self-storage facilities where they were previously allowed by right in the city’s business and industrial zones. The change comes on the heels of a U‑Haul storage facility being allowed as of right at the former C. Cowles building in the Wooster Square section of the city and an unsuccessful attempt to put a storage facility at the corner of Fitch Street and Whalley Avenue in the Westville section of the city.
The change requires that developers receive a special permit to open self-storage facilities in Central Business / Medical (BD‑2) Districts, Wholesale and Distribution (BE) Districts, Light Industry (IL) Districts, and Heavy Industry Districts (IH).
It's an absolute embarrassment that the time is being spent on fixing a definition for "cat cafe" and cleaning up self storage when we could make meaningful changes to the zoning code right now that would help people. We could make in law apartments easier to obtain in certain zones to help our multi-generational families stay together with dignity and independence. We could extend the zones that allow denser development to encourage lower priced options all over town. There are literally dozens of fixes that could be made. But "cat cafe" and "self storage" get the Alders' time and attention. Really????