Boat storage plan gets a boost from commission
The City of Port Washington should allow boat storage in its industrial districts, the Plan Commission agreed recently.
But, members said, the city shouldn’t change its zoning code to allow the use but instead follow past practices, considering boat storage as a type of warehousing.
This would allow Ted Weller, owner of the former Simplicity Manufacturing property at 500 N. Spring St., to construct four buildings for boat storage on his property.
They include three 70-by-170-foot buildings on the north end of the property and a 50-by-230-foot building along Spring Street just north of Mallinger Drive, which would replace an existing storage building.
By doing this, Weller said, he can free up enough room in the existing buildings to allow CPI, a manufacturing business that occupies a portion of one of those facilities, to expand.
That fact seemed to persuade Mayor Marty Becker to support the plan.
The company, he said, has another machine on order and plans to expand its 30-person operation, hiring another 10 people immediately and 25 more in the near future.
“If we’re going to put more jobs in the city, and they’re manufacturing, I’m OK,” Becker said. “I don’t want to lose 75 jobs.”
Commission members had considered amending the zoning code to specifically allow boat storage in industrial districts, but decided that isn’t the way to go.
Weller said that when he bought the Simplicity site, the bulk of the use was boat storage. It’s something the city needs, given the marina, and he said his property is ideal.
“Where are these people going to store these (boats)?” he asked. “It’s going to go in a large industrial building. There’s no other place you’re going to put these yachts.”
But Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven, a member of the commission, spoke against allowing boat storage, saying it is not the best use of the property.
“I recognize boats, yachts, need a home. But they don’t belong in the industrial zoning district,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the highest and best use of industrial property. I think there are better places for it.
“If we permit it, you’re going to see more storage in the limited industrial spaces we have.”
Vanden Noven also questioned whether the city should change the zoning for the entire industrial district to allow for boat storage.
The city has been allowing boat storage as a warehouse use, Bob Harris, the city’s director of planning and development, said.
Weller told the commission that although the new buildings would be constructed for boat storage, they can be converted to other industrial uses in the future.
“The initial plan is boat storage but they always have the ability to be used for other stuff,” he said. “If a company is going to sign a nice long-term lease, they’re going to get the building.”
Commission member Tony Matera asked whether boat storage would be indoors or outdoors.
“This won’t turn into bubble-wrapped boats outside?” he asked.
Indoor boat storage is all that’s allowed, officials said.
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