Board waives window‑transparency requirement for Beaufort Highway storage facility, approves mural alternative

The Brookhaven Board of Appeals unanimously agreed on Aug. 20 to waive a transparency requirement imposed in a prior variance for a self‑storage project at 2719 Beaufort Highway and to replace it with a new, narrower condition that calls for an artistic mural on a specified elevation — with final design approval to rest with the city's Community Development director.

Applicant counsel Jeff Haymore said the project was permitted, inspected and received a certificate of occupancy in April; field panels observed by staff were standard spandrel panels and had not been presented to the applicant as noncompliant at permit review. "We built exactly what city staff reviewed and approved," Haymore said, asking the board to remove condition No. 5 without requiring costly retrofits that would expose customers' storage contents to public view.

City staff explained the original glazed‑element condition had been tied to the project's treatment of open space and the desire to provide visual connection between interior amenity areas and the exterior. Staff noted a change in the zoning code that now allows murals as an alternative. The board heard from the applicant's architect and adjacent property owners in support of the built design and the waiver.

Several board members expressed discomfort with the applicant's framing that the only options were opaque panels or invasive retrofits that would expose storage units; staff and the applicant both said other design solutions (glazed features with faux backdrops, decorative facades or murals) could meet the city's intent. The board adopted a motion to waive condition No. 5 from the earlier variance and substitute a new condition requiring an artistic mural on the specified elevation, to be installed once adjacent flyover/future construction commences and subject to Community Development director approval. The vote was unanimous.

The new condition was presented by staff as a reasonable compromise that preserves the city's design goals while avoiding expensive structural retrofits to a building already permitted and occupied.