Council Rejects Self-Storage Yard

In response to opposition from residents, the City Council has rejected plans for a self-storage yard in a west Anaheim industrial area.

Caster Family Enterprises of San Diego proposed a 161,800-square-foot storage facility on La Palma Avenue west of Gilbert Street.

“I’m very disappointed,” Brian R. Caster, the company’s chief executive officer, told the council after the vote. Caster said he closed escrow on the nearly 4-acre site for $3.1 million and believes the project is appropriate for the industrially zoned land.

But resident Norman W. Schlitz of West Anaheim Neighborhood Development Council, who appealed a Planning Commission action approving the project, said the land should be saved for an industrial business. “This property is far too valuable to have a self-storage put on it,” he said. “We want something that helps our end of town.”

Mayor Tom Daly said the contested site is part of a redevelopment study, and residents have “asked us to be extra careful to what is approved in their community.” Daly also said he wants a city policy on appropriate locations for self-storage facilities.