Arvada City Council rejects proposed Amazon facility

ARVADA, Colo. — The Arvada City Council rejected a proposal from Amazon to build a 112,485-square-foot delivery center and more than 1,100 parking spaces after hours of public discussion at its meeting Monday night.

The council rejected two resolutions to annex and rezone land needed for the project. In the first vote, the council voted 5-2 on a motion to reject the annexation of several parcels, with Mayor Marc Williams and council member Dot Miller voting against the motion. The council also voted 6-1 on a motion to reject the rezoning of several parcels, with Miller voting against.

The warehouse was proposed to be built at 6730 Indiana St. and would have been much smaller than the company’s fulfillment centers, which are usually about a million square feet.

Williams said at the meeting that the city and its council were not taking this decision lightly. 

“I can tell you, this City Council has not made up its mind on either of these issues tonight,” he said. “We are coming here tonight and I can assure you, we don’t know how this is going to come out any more than you do.” 

The proposal from Amazon and real-estate developer Scannell Properties, dubbed Project Indiana, was for the warehouse, 862 van parking spaces and 291 employee parking spaces on 33 acres just south of Maple Valley Park. 

The City of Arvada would have needed to annex and rezone about a third of the land needed to accommodate the facility. The annexed land would have included the park, which would be designated as open space.

A petition related to the annexation was set for a vote Monday night, and first readings were scheduled to be held for zoning ordinances related to the proposal.

The facility would have operated farther down the supply chain from a fulfillment center, as a last stop for items being loaded into trucks and sent out for delivery.

About 14 semi trucks would have made deliveries to the facility per day, according to the city, and Amazon estimated that about 215 delivery vans would operate out of the center, with more around the holidays.

The city also said the facility, which would have resulted in a $30 million investment in Arvada, would employ about 325 workers during normal operations and 750 during the holidays.

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Amazon representatives, including Economic Policy Manager Stephen Maduli-Williams, had said delivery vans would not be coming and going from the facility during rush hour.

That didn’t stopped residents from arguing that the proposed facility wasn’t compatible with the area and would disrupt the ecosystem of nearby Maple Valley Park. They also expressed concerns over how the facility would affect neighborhood traffic and storm drainage.

Opponents of the project formed Protect Maple Valley Park. The group said that annexing the park and using it as a buffer between the facility and residential areas wasn’t an acceptable use of a public park.

Rather, the group proposed an alternative to the Amazon facility that would include more green space and a smaller, walkable development with locally owned businesses and restaurants.

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