ALTAMONT — Sally Ketchum can take one of a couple of routes towards realizing her plan for self-storage units in the village, according to Don Cropsey, the village’s zoning administrator.

The plan that her architect, Tony D’Adamo, has drawn up is meant to go on property behind the gas station and convenience store she used to own at the corner of Main Street and Prospect Terrace. The storage building would open onto Prospect Terrace.

Since that area is zoned for business, which doesn’t allow self-storage units, Ketchum would have to apply for a use variance before she could begin building the storage units, Cropsey said.

Alternatively, he said, Ketchum could approach the village board. She has made no formal application to the village, he said.
"When you think storage unit, you think ugly," said Ketchum. "Mine’s gorgeous." The plan includes a cupola and fake windows with shutters, she said, which make it attractive from all angles. The building is slated to have roughly 64 available units, according to D’Adamo’s drawing.
Ketchum said that she hasn’t yet decided how much she will charge for rent, but said that it will likely cost more than most storage units "because it’s pretty."

A building like the one Ketchum is proposing usually takes between two and six months to erect, D’Adamo said. He estimated that it will cost $40 or more per square foot to build, and, according to the drawing, there is an anticipated 7,160 square feet of storage available, which would make the cost of the building at least $286,400.
Although Ketchum has made no formal proposal, D’Adamo said that he showed the plans to village officials two months ago and got positive feedback. "I think there was a valiant attempt to fit in," said Trustee Dean Whalen, an architect who chairs the village’s comprehensive planning committee. However he, like Cropsey, noted that current zoning laws don’t allow self-storage units in areas zoned for business. A more appropriate place for something like that would be along the Altamont-Voorheesville Road near the roofing business and Volkswagen repair shop, Whalen said.

Ketchum’s plan for the property on Prospect terrace is better than what’s there now, she said. She’d like to break ground this summer, she said.