Amazon Backs Out On Plans For Braintree Facility

BRAINTREE, MA — Amazon canceled its plans to open a distribution center in the industrial park on Campanelli Drive. Mayor Joseph Sullivan told the Patriot Ledger the property owners and an attorney representing Amazon informed him of the decision. Sullivan said he doesn't know if the decision was related to the company deciding to buy the former Necco Candy factory in Revere for a distribution center.

Amazon's 200,000-square-foot facility was originally approved by the Planning Board in July 2018. Planning Board officials said they approved the distribution center because Amazon agreed to a series of conditions first, one of which included any delivery trucks coming or going from the facility be marked with signs identifying them as such. The identification was so the town could enforce a requirement to keep the trucks off residential streets.

Another condition asked Amazon to pay $1.2 million for upgrades to the traffic lights across the Granite Street corridor, which includes the South Shore Plaza and Five Corners, and possibly a new light at the intersection of Granite Street and Campanelli Drive. The upgrade connect impacted traffic lights along the road to monitor traffic electronically according to Melissa Santucci Rozzi, the assistant director of the town's planning and community development office.

But after one of Amazon's attorneys told town officials the regulations made sense, the company took Braintree to land court. Specifically, Amazon's attorneys argued the regulation for delivery truck identification was "arbitrary, capricious, and illegal."

Amazon's attorneys also argued extra driver safety checks and insurance the town required were illegal and not required with similar businesses in Braintree.

Many residents and town officials had objected to Amazon's plan before the Planning Board approved it, especially after Amazon officials said the building would add about 2,800 trips each day to an area already known for heavy traffic.

"Are we just going to add more cars into the problem? We already know it's a traffic hazard. To go from the industrial park to Five Corners is a traffic nightmare," resident Robert Taylor said last year.

Councilor Stephen O'Brien also spoke out against the proposal, citing the low quality of the jobs, the current traffic situation.

"I rise in opposition largely because the voice behind me is speaking in volume. I haven't heard more than one person who is in support of this," he said. "Amazon is a good company, these are not great jobs. This is not the Amazon office facility that everyone wants. These are non-high tech, low paying jobs."