New Amazon facility sparks heavy backlash in small California town

A small Northern California town is fighting plans for a proposed Amazon facility that locals fear will wipe out local jobs and wreak havoc on the environment. 

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More than 100 residents in McKinleyville, an unincorporated coastal town in Humboldt County, attended an over-three-hour public meeting in late April, opposing Amazon’s plan to build a 40,290-square-foot facility over six parcels in the town’s Airport Business Park, according to the Times-Standard.  Planning and Building Director John Ford paused the meeting twice when attendees interrupted speakers with shouts, which led him to threaten to suspend the session, wrote the Times-Standard. 

During the meeting, Stephen Maduli-Williams, Amazon’s senior manager of economic development policy, described the project as a “last-mile delivery station” that would take in sorted packages from Sacramento Amazon facilities and deliver them in the area. Maduli-Williams added that the site would involve $30 million investment in McKinleyville. Amazon spokesperson Amber Plunkett told SFGATE that the e-commerce giant was committed to being a “good neighbor” in McKinleyville. She said that the proposed delivery station would provide faster delivery while also creating jobs. 

But locals who attended the meeting last month argued that any employment offered by Amazon would be short-lived, citing its push for automation. Others argued that the facility could eliminate jobs for U.S. Postal Service and UPS workers. Moreover, locals shared concerns about the possible effects on the environment that the facility would create with single-use plastic packaging and emissions from delivery trucks. Plunkett told SFGATE that Amazon conducts “thorough assessments” of environmental impacts, traffic and quality of life before any facility launches. 

Ford told SFGATE that Amazon’s application is “still early in the process” and that the next phase would be a notice of preparation for the environmental impact report.