Outdoor Storage Site Proposed for Old Northport Road

A Kings Park industrial landowner is seeking the community's approval to rent his light industrial property to an outdoor storage facility. 

Mike Cox, the owner of Pioneer Paving, presented a proposal to lease a portion of his Old Northport Road property to DWC Management, LLC for storage of up to 600 containers to Kings Park Civic Association on Thursday night.

"It's probably one of the most benign uses you could wish for in any area," said Vincent Trimarco, Cox's attorney. 

DWC Management, who currently operates Mini Mobile Storage of Long Island at 1158 Jericho Turnpike in Commack, is looking to stack up to 600 steel storage containers on the four-acre site, according to Trimarco. Containers would be stored two or three per stack, up to a possible height of 24 feet. 

Mobile Mini would have trucks stopping at the facility up roughly 6-8 times a day to drop-off or pick-up the containers, according to Trimarco, but the facility would not be open to the public.  

In order to move forward, Trimarco said DWC Management has filed an application with Smithtown Planning Department for a special exception permit for a trucking station, two interpretations of own zoning code from Smithtown Board of Zoning Appeals. 

The Old Northport Road property is zoned for light industrial uses which allows a trucking station as a special exception but not outdoor storage under town code. 

"The reason we have to call it a trucking station as there is no other way to come into the BZA, the trucking station aspect is a legitimate way to go through it. You have to truck the containers to whereever they go," Trimarco said. 

Cox and DWC Management will ask the BZA to rule on whether storage of the containers is allowed as an accessory use to the trucking station and whether the storage containers, without wheels but each having a commercial registration, can be considered "commercial vehicles." 

In addition to the special exception permit and two interpretations, the storage company seeks 12 additional variances ranging from permission for outdoor storage in a light industrial zoning, reducing various setbacks and landscaping requirement, and the maximum height allowed be raised from 6 to 24 feet. 

Kings Park residents expressed some concerns regarding the height of storage containers stacked at 24 feet and requests for setbacks to be reduced to 0-feet. 

"[Cox's] application with no buffers on the site, we can’t be in favor of this application. Everyone agrees with that," Lehman said. 

Others questioned if the application could set a precedent that would allow other Old Northport Road property owners to request permits for outdoor storage. 

"People who need outdoor storage don’t want to build buildings, why is that?," asked Michelle Garry. "You can't have outdoor storage as it looks like a dump." 

The proposed application is scheduled for a public hearing before Smithtown BZA at 7 p.m. on Jan. 14.