Arvada Residents Fight Plan For 'Invasive' Amazon Facility
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - A new facility promising quicker deliveries for Amazon in northern Jefferson County isn't the package neighbors want to see. The fate of a "last mile" delivery station will be decided on Monday.
Arvada residents are now trying to fight the tech giant from setting up shop.
"It's literally putting the worst possible use right next to residential and open space," said Gina Hallisey, a member of ProtectMapleValleyPark.com. "If it happens here, it sets a precedent in development, it can happen anywhere. It can be in your neighborhood."
Arvada's Planning Commission approved the proposal in April. The city council will vote on the project on what is expected to be a lengthy meeting Monday night.
UPDATE: Arvada Leaders Vote Down Plan For New Amazon Distribution Facility
Hallisey and her group have gathered more than 9,000 signatures against the facility.
The developer believes the property matches the area.
"It's all industrial and commercial completely surrounding us, other than the park. And so, looking at the east, west, south, we're exactly the same industrial commercial," said Matt Boone the Development Manager at Scannell Properties, the company hoping to develop the sight.
The application to the city is to annex the land, which is currently unincorporated Jefferson County, and zone it to allow the light industrial development. Residents say the site will be heavy industrial because of the number of trips semi-trailers will make each day and take issue with the acres of pavement that will make up a new parking lot that will be built up to Maple Valley Park.
"This is 24/7," Hallisey said. "They'll be loading hundreds of vans all night long, all day long. It'll be all day long. The traffic, the noise, the light pollution from all the diesel's idling. It's going to be very invasive."
Scannell created a website and sent out mailers to the entire city saying traffic would be less than comparable developments. There's also a proposal to add land to the park which will bring economic investment.
"We're showing that we're trying to go above and beyond to do everything that we can to mitigate any sort of impacts that people feel the adjacent park would suffer," Boone said.
"These vans are leaving when people are already at work, and people have already exited the roadway. And then their shifts are usually about 10 hours. All the traffic that is going to be generated by this facility is off-peak hours. And therefore, that's why we make the statements that we're not going to cause any congestion due to this project."
Hallisey is concerned the development will have a devastating impact on the ecosystem of the park, which has Ralston Creek running through it.
"I've seen what a flood can do in this area. We're worried if you take away all that ground discharge, and you have all this impervious surface, even if you have a detention pond, if we have a flood event it's not going to be good it's going to be bad. It's a rich riparian habitat," Hallisey said. "We're going to protect our community. There's a lot of people that don't want this."
