BLYTHEWOOD- A proposal has been made by Dewayne Bohannon, the owner of the existing Storage Express mini-warehouses that sit between Community Drive and I-77 and within the Town limits, to fully develop the five-acre site by adding 30,926 square feet of new mini-warehouse space.
While that is an allowed land use in the Limited Industrial (LI) District, the size of the project requires Planning Commission approval of the site plan as a group development.
Design issues for the commission to consider include internal and external vehicular and pedestrian traffic circulation, landscaping and screening, tree preservation and storm water management.
Due to the very limited occupancy of the site, Town Administrator Gary Parker pointed out in a memo to the Commissioners that he recommended no traffic impact study was required.
“I am also recommending the proposed alternative landscape design (submitted by Bohannon),” Parker wrote. “The extensive building and driveway impervious surfaces hinder the usual interior tree plantings and building foundation plantings.”
Instead, he suggested intense landscaping, fencing and berm screening to hide the new expansion from traffic along the I-77 frontage road. He wrote that this would enhance this gateway to Blythewood.
According to landscape drawings submitted by Bohannon, the tree preservation will occur at the southern end of the site, surrounding and screening the main detention pond.