Cape Coral considers 9-month moratorium on storage facilities

Storage facilities have been popping up on every corner of Cape Coral, and now the city is considering a nine-month moratorium that would put a pause on accepting applications and issuing permits for them.

The self-storage facilities all across Cape Coral are hard to miss. Most are in high-traffic areas to make them obvious to potential renters. Developer Scott Moore decided to invest in a property on De Navarre Parkway because of the demand.

“We bought this property for roughly $870,000 in January,” Moore said. “Immediately went under contract with a construction company, gave them a $1 million deposit and we’ve been proceeding through the process of securing a permit.”

But Cape Coral leaders are worried storage facilities might take up all the available prime commercial space.

“In our city, as we continue to have more demand now for commercial and mixed-use facilities in the Cape, you know, we don’t want to shut anybody out,” said Councilman Tom Hayden.

If the city’s nine-month moratorium is passed, it would put a pause on any applications for permits.
Hayden says he feels the moratorium is necessary so the city can appropriately manage its growth.

“We just want to make sure we’re putting them in the right places,” Hayden said. “We don’t want to give up our prime commercial frontage on the main corridors, where we know the businesses that, you know, we really want to bring here should be.”

Moore understands, but he doesn’t believe developments already in progress, like his, should be impacted.

“Just doesn’t seem fair with the amount of money that we’ve spent—the time, the manpower.”