Atlanta could ban new self-storage buildings near the Beltline

Driving the news: Next week, an Atlanta City Council committee is expected to consider a new ordinance banning new self-storage facilities within a half-mile of the Beltline.

Zoom in: However helpful they might be, self-storage facilities are big boxes filled with smaller boxes.

• The ordinance sponsored by Council member Jason Dozier says that kind of design and "non-active usage" don't benefit a multibillion-dollar loop of parks, trails and transit that was created to breathe life into the city.

Context: Self-storage facilities — and the debate over their presence on the Beltline — aren't new. In 2017, then-Council member Joyce Sheperd wanted a similar prohibition after a company proposed a self-storage facility along a future Beltline segment in South Buckhead.

• The construction of a second facility overlooking Piedmont Park and one of the Beltline's busiest intersections reignited the debate.

What they're saying: Transportation corridors such as the Beltline and MARTA should be places where pedestrians can "easily walk for goods, services, jobs and community on a regular basis," Matthew Garbett of ThreadATL, a mobility and urbanism advocacy group, told Axios.

• Self-storage facilities, Garbett said, don't do that.

Flashback: Dozier, whose district includes the Beltline's Westside Trail, is a nemesis of what he considers bad buildings along the Beltline.

• In 2024, he co-sponsored legislation prohibiting data centers such the aircraft carrier-size behemoth near Howell Station from being built along the Beltline.

What we're watching: Whether the self-storage industry weighs in. Self Storage Association, which represents the industry, did not return Axios' request for comment.