The History of How Amazon Came to Northborough & Lessons Learned

Nearly 700,000 square feet of warehouses were approved in one fateful night in 2015. Those warehouses became Amazon.

How does that happen?

In part 2 of Questions with the Candidates, Martinek and Ziton share the history of what happened in 2015 and compare how today's Planning Board has increased the level of scrutiny to better protect our town from such overwhelming impact.

"Fundamentally, it's the job of the Planning Board to set conditions and mitigation up front," explained Martinek. "When that doesn't happen, it's too late on the other side of it. That's why we see the consequences that the town is experiencing today - traffic, disruption of neighborhoods, impact on roadways, risk to our safety, and so on."

The current Planning Board has been working hard to mitigate impact the best they can. They recently started working with the regional planning commission to help advise them on solutions and apply for grants.

In 2020, the board reviewed a warehouse application in the same area. They spent 6 meetings over the period of nearly 6 months, reading over 50 letters from residents, and hearing over 30 phone calls. They ultimately decided that the benefits did not outweigh the impact, and denied the plan.

"Hearing from the residents was important to understanding the full picture," said Ziton. "Any report can make the numbers work when it comes to traffic. It was the people who live in the neighborhoods rounding out the full picture for us."

Many residents expressed grave concern over traffic, the wetlands, Stirrup Brook Trail, and the projects proximity to Algonquin. The primary concern being young drivers, schools busses, and the kids traveling on that truck route to get back and forth to Southborough.

"That's why it's dangerous to go backwards," said Martinek. One of the candidates opposing Martinek and Ziton approved both Amazon and FedEx before resigning from the board in 2019.

It's history not worth repeating.

Watch the 3 minute clip: