Johnston Approves Master Plan For Major Retail Distribution Site

JOHNSTON, RI — The Johnston Planning Board approved the initial stages of a plan to bring a massive retail distribution center to a site off of Hartford Avenue at a virtual meeting Tuesday evening, reported WPRI.

The distribution center would be located on approximately 200 acres of wooded land near I-295 on Route 6, a property about the same size as downtown Providence.

At the meeting, Bluewater Property Group, the project applicant whose client is rumored to be Amazon.com, provided testimony and the planning board listened to resident concerns and questions before deciding to approve the first stages of the plan.

Although Bluewater Property Group said the six-floor facility will be set back from the road and will only require the development of 70 acres of the land, residents expressed many concerns about environmental and neighborhood impacts, traffic on an already busy road, and noise affecting residential areas.

The next step is for impact studies to be completed by the R.I. Department of Transportation, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, and others before the contractor is allowed to begin construction.

Bluewater Property Group said the current goal is to open the facility in 2023.