Gorham residents spoke out against Amazon's proposal to build a 158,100-square-foot warehouse and distribution system in town at Monday's planning board meeting.
Amazon's local engineer, Chris Taylor of Sebago Technics, presented the preliminary sketch plan for the warehouse with parking for 330 employees and 565 vans. Amazon expects to hire 175 full and part-time employees.
Dana Burleigh lives on Shamrock Drive, which abuts the site. He said he is not anti-business or anti-Amazon and, in fact, his company is working with Amazon on a project in Bangor.
"Amazon does overbuild things. That parking lot, did you say it would have space for about 900 vehicles for vans and personal vehicles? That seems to be way oversized. That's what we're going to be looking at from Shamrock Drive," Burleigh said.
Other residents worry about Amazon operating the warehouse 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Town Councilor Charlie Hamblen says Gorham's constant traffic congestion would be aggravated by the project.
"We're going to see so many of those little vans and so many of those trucks, so the level of traffic coming into town probably exceeds whatever we can imagine," Hamblen said.
Taylor says the project would use just 20 acres of the 94-acre parcel to avoid wetlands, vernal pools, and an upland sandpiper population.
He said he plans to start applying for the state permits needed to proceed with the project. A final plan application is expected after studies on traffic and feedback from the state.
The town in August voted to sell Amazon a $4 million parcel of land it purchased, with voter approval in 2019. That sale is contingent on the project meeting Gorham's Land Use Code and obtaining permits from the state departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation as well as the Army Corps of Engineers.
