TOWN OF NIAGARA, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Niagara Town Board heard from Amazon representatives and the public regarding the possibility of an Amazon distribution center on Lockport Road. Some Town of Niagara homeowners were upset over the possibility, while others were happy about the potential economic growth.
"I love the idea. I love everything about it. I truly believe it’ll help out a lot of people only if the do it right and safe," Thomas Weber, who lives across the road from where the distribution center would be built, said.
Amazon is proposing a 650,000 square foot distribution center on 216 acres of land. A representative from the company said the center would employee 1,000 people full-time, averaging at $18 an hour pay.
"From my driveway, I can see the entrance into the site. I approve of it. The town needs jobs, needs development. I’m in support of it. I am a unionized construction worker, so I hope it goes union and gets support backing our local economy," Joseph Gregory Myles, who also lives across the road from where the distribution center would be built, said.
The Niagara County Planning Board has already given Amazon a positive recommendation, but the Niagara Town Board, like the public, has concern about traffic.
"With road rage and everything else that’s going to come out of it, it’s not going to work if they send anything Packard Road. The truck traffic is horrible now," Weber said.
"Being a resident of Packard Road, I’d like to see traffic diverted on Lockport Road. If there’s some way they can do that, I’m all for the project. Being that the airbase and that being so close, traffic is an issue. But I think they’ll work it out here in the town," Myles said.
The Town Board voted to table any decision pending hearing more from the public and Amazon exploring alternative traffic routes.
