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Eastern Montgomery County residents last week continued their fight against a proposed storage site in Burtonsville, saying it would detract from the aesthetics of the area and not produce enough jobs.

The Columbia-based company, ezStorage, wants to build a storage facility near the intersection of routes 198 and 29.

An attorney for the company says the site is not the gateway to the community that residents are portraying it to be.

"This is not exactly a pedestrian haven," said Robert Dalrymple, an attorney for Bethesda-based Linowes and Blocher LLC, which represents ezStorage.

After an initial denial from the county Planning Board and a Montgomery County Circuit Court reversal of the board's decision, the County Council on July 28 held a public hearing on a text amendment that would change the zoning at the site, thus preventing the storage facility.

Eric Luedtke, parliamentarian for the East County Citizens Advisory Board, which supports the text amendment, told the council that the ezStorage facility would detract from the area.

"This would be the first thing people see in Montgomery County, a huge storage facility," Luedtke said.

An ezStorage official told The Gazette last month that the county has targeted self-storage facilities.

"It's a lousy way for the county to treat businesses," said Craig Pittinger, vice president of Siena Corporation, the development wing of ezStorage.

Attempts to build an ezStorage facility in Sandy Spring also have met with resistance from residents who have said such a facility is not appropriate for a site along Olney-Sandy Spring Road (Route 108).

Councilman George Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park said "there must be a market" for storage facilities but he did not know where.

"Is there anywhere in Montgomery County where we can build it?" Leventhal asked the hearing speakers.

Patrick Ryan, a member of the Fairland Master Plan Committee, said it should be built at "any place not exposed to common thoroughfare."

Some community members want to see the area as a development option for businesses along Route 29. Washington Adventist Hospital plans to move close to the area in 2013 and the Food and Drug Administration plans to expand its workforce in White Oak to 8,900 employees in 2011-2012.

The County Council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee will meet to discuss the zoning text amendment Sept. 21 at the Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. For more information, call 240-777-7900.