The Birmingham City Council next week will hold a public hearing on a proposal that block issuance of new businesses licenses for self-storage facilities for the next year.

The ordinance, District 5 Councilor Darrell O’Quinn said, is an effort to keep self-storage from taking over prime real estate in Birmingham’s growing downtown residential areas.

These storage businesses, while in high demand and serving purposes for residents, often don’t employ many full-time workers and take up a lot of space, he said.

“The downtown central business district is the economic engine of the metro area. We want the parcels in the central business district to achieve their highest and best use. Having a storage facility isn’t the highest and best use of prime downtown real estate,” O’Quinn said.

The ordinance would prevent any new business licenses for self-storage for one year in any areas zoned M-2 or I-2 (heavy industrial). O’Quinn said the ordinance will likely be altered to limit its impact to certain areas of Birmingham, not the entire city. The ordinance will not affect existing self-storage businesses.

The one-year stay would allow the city and community to plan how to best address the growing demand for self-storage.

If approved by the council, the ordinance would go into effect immediately.

“We don’t want to discourage people from doing business in Birmingham, but we also have to acknowledge we want the city to be well-planned and thoughtful about how the city grows,” O’Quinn said.

O’Quinn said he encourages anyone with strong opinions or concerns about the ordinance to attend the July 2 city council meeting.