If you run a facility in Prince George's County, Maryland, budget for the annual $5,000 use and occupancy permit fee that CB-17 sets, per Modern Storage Media. It isn't a one-time payment. A court may change that, but until one does, it's a recurring line on your P&L.
New York City operators have their own new cost to plan for. Both stories come from a legal commentary published October 17 by Modern Storage Media, and both are in court.
What happened
On April 21, 2026, the Prince George's County Council enacted Council Bill 017-2026, known as CB-17. It became law without the County Executive's signature, per Modern Storage Media. The bill puts an annual $5,000 permit charge on four kinds of business: storage facilities, liquor stores, firearms sellers, and tobacco and e-cigarette shops, the same article reports.
Until now the county's use and occupancy permit was typically a single payment of about $370 for any business, according to the article. Every other business keeps paying that. The article's count is that the four named types pay more than 13 times as much, and they pay it yearly.
The Council gave a reason. It found that these businesses have an outsized effect on quality of life, as the article quotes:
"have a particularly detrimental impact upon Prince George's County's quality of life."
A group of affected businesses, storage operators among them, sued. Their claim is that the "fee" is really a tax, and the County has no authority to levy it, per the same article. The writer, a law firm partner, notes that the bill only "purports" to set a fee. The suit is pending.
In New York City, the article says facilities now need a license or face fines above $1,000 per day, per Modern Storage Media. Two local laws also require at least 60 days' notice before a tenant's rate goes up, and the city has adopted implementing rules. The New York and national self storage associations and a group of operators have sued the city to stay enforcement. We broke down the city's rulebook in our October 5 roundup.
What it means for your facility
The fee is flat, so it lands differently on a big store and a small one. Here's the math on a county portfolio.
Assume you hold 10 facilities in the county and the $5,000 applies to each one's permit. That's our assumption, so check the bill and your invoices. At the roughly $370 baseline, the old one-time cost was $3,700. Under CB-17 it's $50,000 a year. The multiple is about 13.5, which fits the article's "more than 13 times."
| Scenario | Cost |
|---|---|
| 10 facilities, old one-time permit at $370 each | $3,700 once |
| 10 facilities, CB-17 at $5,000 each | $50,000 every year |
On a 50,000 NRSF facility, the $5,000 fee works out to $0.10 a foot a year. On a 20,000 NRSF facility it's $0.25 a foot. Our read, which the article doesn't make, is that the flat charge hits smaller stores hardest, because the same dollars spread over fewer NRSF.
In New York City, one month without a license at the $1,000 a day the article cites is $30,000 per facility. The article says fines exceed that figure, so treat it as the minimum.
Don't plan around the lawsuits. A ruling could cancel CB-17 or leave it standing, and the article gives no timeline for either case. Budget as if the charge stays, and treat any refund as upside.
What to check this week
- List every facility by jurisdiction and flag the ones in Prince George's County and New York City.
- Pull the county permit bills for the Maryland stores. Confirm from the county, not this post, whether each facility is billed the $5,000 the article describes and when it's due.
- Put the fee into next year's budget as a recurring cost for each billed facility. Then recheck each store's NOI against it.
- For New York City stores, confirm each license is in hand. Count back the 60 days of notice the article cites from the date of every planned increase, and put that notice date on the calendar. Our ECRI explainer covers how to schedule increases.
- Ask your state association or counsel where both suits stand. Check back monthly, because the figures here come from commentary and the ordinances control.
A new fixed cost changes what each store has to earn in move-ins. When you've rerun the numbers, our self-storage marketing work starts from that per-facility target.