Statement by Protect Fauquier on Warrenton Staff Approval of Amazon Site Plan (April 18, 2024)
The approval today of Amazon's Site Development Plan is yet more evidence of a flawed and secretive Town process that caters to Amazon.
Once again, the Town is ignoring powerful and legitimate citizen concerns.
In particular, citizens had raised three concerns about the Amazon Site Development Plan and has asked that the SDP not be approved until they were resolved:
· Complete lack of information on how power will be brought to the Amazon site -- as to where power lines will be installed and where a substation will be built;
· Failure of Amazon to comply with the SUP condition requiring delineation of noise emitting equipment, plus the lack of a valid noise study demonstrating compliance with the Warrenton noise ordinance - even as our neighbors in Prince William continue to endure 2 years of noise violations at the Amazon Data Center on Tanner Way;
· Massive redactions of information by Amazon, which the Town refuses to overrule and make public..
At the request of Council members Paul Mooney, Eric Gagnon, and Bill Semple, the Town Council agreed to hold a Special Work Session on April 24 to discuss these concerns. This meeting was to include Dominion Energy, to provide information on the status and options for bringing power to the Amazon site on Blackwell Road.
Now that meeting and discussion has been preempted by the Town staff's precipitous approval of the Site Development Plan, just one week after Amazon submitted it to the Town. (The Town is allowed 45 days for its review, and previously has taken 45 days to do a careful professional review. )
On behalf of its 1,500 members in the Town and County, Protect Fauquier's Executive Board is shocked that the Town staff would approve the SDP so fast, ignore the citizen concerns, and ignore the plans for a Special Work Session on the SDP issues.
The Amazon project has been marked by secrecy, deception, and lack of information, and this latest action is yet more evidence of a fundamentally flawed process.
Protect Fauquier Executive Board:
Mike Fultz, President
Cindy Burbank, Secretary
Denise Schefer, Member
PJ Leary, Member