‘Simply isn’t Eagle.’ City Council shoots down planned storage facility

Dozens of Eagle residents attended the July 14 City Council meeting to speak out against a plan that would have brought hundreds of storage units into the city.

City Council members sided with residents in the end and unanimously voted against the plan, sympathizing with neighbor sentiments that the proposal “simply isn’t Eagle.”

The 9.84-acre plot on northwest corner of North Hartley Road and West Beacon Light Road owned by Stor-It Self Storage would have included 500 covered units and a single-family home already on the property for management.

Tamara Thompson, of The Land Group, presented the plan on behalf of the owner, asserted that the proposed facility fits with Eagle’s comprehensive plan for the area because it would provide needed goods and services and is located exactly where non-residential uses are intended to be concentrated.

“Storage is considered an essential service,” Thompson told the council. “It provides a needed service to residences. It generates low traffic volumes. It requires minimal water and sewer demands. It creates virtually no school impacts.”

The property is in unincorporated Ada County but lies within Eagle’s area of city impact and is contiguous to city limits, making it eligible for annexation.

Planning and Zoning Commission members on May 18 voted in a tie, which meant a denial of the application under a conditional use permit, but the owners pressed forward seeking an annexation with a development agreement instead.

City planning staff member Katelyn Davison told City Council that when the application for the storage site was first submitted in September 2025, the area had been planned to be used to build a community center. Since then, an amendment to the comprehensive plan was approved, which revised the future land use of the site as residential.

‘Fortress-style’ storage buildings

In the project packet provided to council by the applicant, the plan describes the proposed design as “fortress-style buildings,” something many residents were keen to point out.

“A fortress, well, we all know is to keep people out and keep people away, and it hardly fits a community setting,” resident Greg Nelson said.

Developers proposed landscape setbacks to adjacent to residential properties to the north and west, and two gated access points to Hartley Road that Thompson said would not impede traffic on Beacon Light Road, which is considered a high-traffic road in Eagle.

Ada County Highway District did not require a traffic study because storage is such a low generator of traffic, but the agency did require an additional 25 feet of right of way acquisition.

“The design ensures a low impact, quiet, well-buffered facility that is compatible with the surrounding neighbors,” Thompson said. “Stor-It Self Storage is a very good neighbor.”

Residents oppose storage units

Residents were not moved by her presentation.

In a stream of public comments that lasted more than an hour, residents called out the city’s plan to preserve Beacon Light Road as a designated preserved rural-residential buffer and that the facility would fail to match the character of the surrounding area.

“A self-storage facility is a passive, single-use commercial operation that provides no community gathering value or pedestrian engagement, and it violates the intent of the mixed-use tool,” resident Craig Carter said during the hearing. “It signals to the City Council that the project is highly contentious, deeply flawed and lacks a clear mandate or consensus even among the city’s appointed community planners.”

The plot is situated next to several residential developments in an area of Eagle that is a priority for the city’s comprehensive growth plan. Residents told council during the public hearing that the addition of a self-storage business “the size of two Costco warehouses” as one put it, shows disregard for that plan.

“Terra View Subdivision is selling lots for as much as $650,000 with homes for sale at prices over $2 million,” resident Ryan Fornstrom said in a prepared statement. “The last thing anyone would want to see next to all of this premium residential housing is a storage facility.”

Developer says opposition is a ‘standard NIMBY response’

Thompson said these concerns are “our standard NIMBY response,” using the acronym referring to “not in my backyard.”

As part of their rebuttal to residential concerns, C.W. Hurless, chief development officer for Stor-It Self Storage, spoke to Stor-It’s heritage in the area.

“I’d love to show the experience that being our neighbor really is a good thing,” Hurless said. “We don’t promote or allow crime and do so with the help of computerized gate access cameras, photocell motion sensor lighting and on-site management. We do add substantial real estate tax income for the county, city, schools, fire and police.”

“I don’t think that this is harmonious or compatible with the area,” council member Nancy Merrill said and commended residents for “well-thought-out” testimony.

“It’s not (a source of) employment or retail, it’s not a vibrant village center that serves the community,” Merrill said. “I think the best thing that has been said by others tonight is (this) just simply isn’t Eagle.”