New storage facility will fill vacant land on East Main Street

Site will also provide for commercial development and housing

A Yuba County real estate broker and walnut farmer has been given permission to construct a 116,475-square-foot selfstorage facility on East Main Street with enough land left over for retail firms and apartments.

The conditional use permit for Woodland Storage was approved by the City Council for applicant Patrick Laughlin following a public hearing held Tuesday night via teleconference. The permit covers 6.7 acres within a community commercial zone. The property is at 1434 E. Main St., just east of Matmor Road at 1434 E. Main St., between Matmor Road and the Hwy. 113 onramp.

Working out the agreement, which includes sewer lines and roadway access from both East Main and Matmor Road has taken several years. Other conditions of development include building the storage units away from East Main as well as screening them from both Hwy. 113 and a nearby apartment complex.

Additionally, according to city planner Megan Meier, as part of the operating agreement, Laughlin will pay $25,000 a year for the next 25 years with a 2% a year increase to cover infrastructure costs.

Laughlin also said he plans to build apartments in the future, although he doesn’t know how many at this point. He also said via phone, that he has worked with an architecture firm to “implement the unique Woodland style” of architecture to include brick on the storage areas. The facility will also have solar panels and an electric vehicle charging station.

During the public hearing, Laughlin said he also owns self-storage facilities in Dixon and Orland. He has worked with city staff for the last three years on the project and will “start the ball rolling” on the residential development as soon as he gets some guidance from the city on the number apartments permissible.

He also mentioned the city’s requirement to provide a Public Art in-lieu fee option, which calls for 1% of the development construction costs to go toward public art projects. Laughlin said it would be no problem, noting cost estimates for the storage facility were around $10 million, which would mean $10,000 of in lieu fees.

“Art is important for the community,” he said, “and since my wife is a music teacher and my kids are ballerinas, we recognize the need for art.”

Council members approved the proposal on a 4-0 vote (with Councilman Enrique Fernandez absent due to technical problems) and had few questions other than of a technical nature.

Mayor Rich Lansburgh asked how close the storage units would be located to apartments to the south because he didn’t want residents there disturbed by night time security lighting. Meier said the lights were all “downward casting,” and that the parking lot at the apartments would serve as a buffer because its between the storage units and the residential area.

The original application was submitted before the May 11, 2017, moratorium on self-storage land use. Laughlin worked with the city through the moratorium and subsequent rezoning efforts to meet the specific development standard requirements for selfstorage outlined in the adopted Interim Zoning Ordinance approved by the council on June 5, 2018 and updated April 7, 2020.

The moratorium had been put in place because it was thought too much city property was being used for self-storage and that construction guidelines as well as updates to zoning codes were needed.

Woodland Storage had already been approved by the Planning Commission on March 5.

Technically, the project site consists of three contiguous, undeveloped parcels totaling 6.7 acres with the main access to the site at 1424 E. Main St. A secondary access point is located off Matmor Road via an unimproved city rightof-way. Surrounding land uses include a veterinary hospital and auto body shop to the west, vacant land to the east, and multifamily apartment complexes to the south.

The development will include a 5,121-square-foot two-story office and managers unit located at the entrance to the project off of East Main. The self-storage portion will be adjacent to the multifamily housing to the south and set back over 300 feet from the major arterial roadways as required under the city zoning for self-storage facilities.

The self-storage itself will be 10 single-story selfstorage buildings and an additional three-story selfstorage building totaling 116,475 square feet. Access to the site will be provided from East Main with secondary access off Matmor.

Construction will be done in three phases. Phase 1 would include 75% of the single-story storage buildings and the office/managers building totaling 57,846 square feet, as well as utility, frontage and other onsite improvements. Phase 2 would include development of the three-story selfstorage building at 46,400 square feet adjacent to Hwy. 113. Phase 3 would construct the remaining single-story storage buildings totaling 17,350 square feet.

Remaining parcels of up to 16,000 square feet of future commercial and housing use are located both west and north of the storage buildings.

Finally, the project would involve building a water line through the site with a connection to an existing 12-inch water main at Matmor Road and East Main. A sewer line would be build on East Main and extended about 1,400 feet east from the development to an existing sewer manhole at Pioneer Avenue.

These improvements will provide infrastructure for future commercial development in this area along East Main, according to city staff.

Contact reporter Jim Smith at 530-406-6230.