PORTSMOUTH — A third attempt to place a storage facility on a formerly contaminated superfund site on Effingham Street finally gained City Council approval Tuesday.
SAFStor Real Estate Co. has tried since 2021 to get the green light to build a three-story, 103,350-square-foot storage facility with nearly 800 storage units at 0 Effingham St. Due to past lead contamination, it’s an Environmental Protection Agency superfund site, which restricts how the land can be used.
The planning commission and planning staff recommended approval for the project. Tuesday’s approved requests included a use permit and a rezoning from downtown sub-district to conditional general mixed use.
Attorney Don Scott represents the applicants and made the request at Tuesday’s meeting. He told council members the project amounts to an $11.5 million investment, with the potential to eventually generate up to $1.4 in annual tax revenue for the city.
“That’s money for our tax rolls here in Portsmouth,” Scott said. He said civic league members in the Brighton and Prentis Park neighborhoods were supportive of the project.
The applicant would have to purchase the property from the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which owns the 5-acre property and has tried to sell it for decades.
The area was once home to the Washington Park public housing development, which was demolished in 2006 following the discovery of lead in the soil due to a nearby brass and bronze foundry. The EPA placed the vacant property on the National Priorities List in 1990 and cleaned it up nearly 20 years later by excavating the soil and placing a concrete layer on top.
Last year, council members Mark Whitaker, Paul Battle and Chris Woodard, along with then-Vice Mayor De’Andre Barnes, voted against the project, citing health concerns and the desire for something more than a storage facility. The four also voted against a similar project in 2021.
Scott told The Virginian-Pilot following last year’s vote that he wasn’t surprised and had plans then to bring it back and try again. Battle and Woodard are no longer on the council.
Whitaker and Barnes said Tuesday they would remain consistent in their votes against the project, reiterating the aforementioned concerns. The vote was ultimately 5-2. Barnes said he’d like to see more for an area that’s an extension of downtown.
“We’re definitely not lacking when it comes to storage,” Barnes said. “But I just think that we need to be putting things in place that’s going to bring people to the city of Portsmouth, that’s going to provide entertainment to the city of Portsmouth and that’s going to be a benefit and real tax revenue. And also bring jobs.”
The previous denials of the project also became a talking point during last year’s City Council election, with Bill Moody attributing the vote to what he called an “anti-development” majority on City Council at the time.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]
