Understanding City Requirements when you're doing your Due Diligence

When you are evaluating a property for a conversion, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind that the planning and zoning department are going to require. In this blog we are going to cover, Traffic Flow, The Area Coverage Ratio, and Parking Requirements. These may seem like unimportant details, but they may prevent you from building your self-storage property.

The number of cars that drive on a road every day is important to the city. Roads can only handle so many cars for so long before they have to be expanded or repaired or replaced. This puts a strain on the city’s budget. So, what does that have to do with you? Well, if the road that you are considering building on is only able to support 50,000 cars a day and it currently has 51,000 cars a day on it, then you may not be able to build because you would add additional strain to the traffic flow. They may plan on expanding that road, but if they aren’t going to do it in the next 3 years, that doesn’t help your project.

Another factor that you need to cover during your due diligence period is the Area Coverage Ratio for your city. Cities have a limit to the amount of square footage that you can put on an acre of land. If the city will only allow 13,000 square feet on 1 acre of land, then you will have a very small self-storage facility. You need to know what the ACR is so that you know what the minimum acreage you need is for your project.

Finally, you need to look into the parking requirements the city has for your self-storage facility. They will require parking! The question is how much. Will they require the same as if you were a retail facility, which is so much more than you would ever need, or will they work with you?

In some areas of the country, zoning requirements are 1 parking space per 1000 sq. ft. If you are building a 70,000 square foot building, then you would need 70 parking spots. This is more than you would ever actually need. However, you can get creative. You can put parking places around the exterior of the units or in front of each unit. You can put 4 to 5 real spots at the front for your manager and prospective renters. You don’t want your renters coming to your property. You want them to forget that they have belongings in your facility. You want their payments on auto-withdrawal. You want them to keep on paying for those things that they never use and don’t even remember what are. Get creative. You can find ways to get the parking that you need.

Remember the details when you are planning your conversion. Look at what the city is going to require and make sure that you can meet their requirements. As always, happy investing.