West Covina’s City Council on Tuesday night, Oct. 19, voted to approve the development of an Amazon Delivery Center that would operate on the property of the former Faith Community Church on Badillo St.
Amazon will have a 12-year lease with developer Greenlaw Partners, which is purchasing the property from the church. The Planning Commission on Oct. 4 voted its approval and ushered it on to the City Council.
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Mayor Letty Lopez-Viado, Mayor Pro Tem Dario Castellanos and council members Rosario Diaz and Tony Wu voted in favor. Council member Brian Tabatabai was the lone dissenting vote.
The deal includes a community benefit payment of $2.1 million up front from Greenlaw, as well as $200,000 that would go into the general fund. Another $200,000 per each year of the lease would go to the general fund, with another $100,000 per year for community benefit.
The 177,240-square-foot building on 21.1 acres of land will be redeveloped to accommodate the center. It is expected to be completed in about a year.
A dozen people spoke in favor of the project with another nine voicing their approval without speaking. But 16 spoke out against it with 21 more silently expressing their displeasure.
Those in favor of the center talked about the jobs Amazon will bring to a city with an unemployment rate of 11.3% as well as education benefits the company provides. However, as Tabatabai noted, fewer than half of the 400 jobs the center will create will actually be Amazon employees, with the majority being contracted delivery service partners.
Tabatabai also pointed out that as of Jan. 1, the minimum wage in California will be $15, the starting wage for an Amazon warehouse worker — although a starting wage of $15 to $18 per hour was mentioned in the Planning Commission meeting.
Those speaking against the project said Amazon’s jobs are low paying in comparison to other delivery companies — such as UPS, which had several speakers who mentioned that not only do they make considerably more money than Amazon workers, they have a union that backs its employees when injury occurs.
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Traffic and pollution concerns were also expressed by residents.
After hearing public comments, Scott Murray of Greenlaw said something that drew the ire of Tabatabai.
“This is a land-use conversation,” he said. “And tonight it seems like we’re caught in the cross hairs of a labor situation, and we’re not Amazon. We’re not an employer, Amazon is the employer and so I’m not here to defend what Amazon does or doesn’t do.”
He added: “But, clearly, the UPS folks have an issue with what Amazon does, and a lot of the union folks have an issue with that. And for some reason they’ve all shown up tonight and it’s a big deal for them. We’re not in a labor-union dispute, we’re here as a land proposal and looking for the project to get approved.”
Tabatabai quickly responded.
“The five of us represent 110,000 residents of West Covina,” he said to Murray. “And you cannot on the one instance have all the perks of Amazon and sell that to the community. And then when you get the critique of Amazon come in here and say this is a land-use issue and has nothing to do with Amazon. That’s being very disingenuous.”
A round of applause from those against erupted, causing Mayor Lopez-Viado to ask that everyone quiet down. Later, as Tabatabai voted no, there were more cheers for him. The Mayor again admonished the crowd.
Indeed, it was an emotional meeting.
“There’s people that need the work and the help for college and school,” resident David Valadez said. “So I think bringing Amazon here is going to help a lot.”
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Marie Thomas, a 50-year West Covina resident, said she opposed the project.
“All of our residents, especially our seniors and our children, will be impacted in the short run and in the long run by the pollution, the traffic and the noise emanating from the building,” she said.
Murray noted another positive.
“There will now be property tax charged to this project, which wasn’t there before because a church is non-profit,” he said. “So now there will be $80,000 and growing number of property taxes that we pay each year.”
Tabatabai said the city could get more out of building a housing project, which would help its RHNA numbers.
“That site was just made to be redeveloped into housing,” he said. “I talked to staff and they said we could conservatively put 360 units on that site. When we looked at property tax alone, we’re talking a couple of million dollars more than what we were able to get from Amazon.”
He added: “Then you talk about the multiplier effect. Residents, they go to your gas stations, they go to your stores, they go to your restaurants, they buy cars. They’re creating jobs throughout your community.”
Wu believes granting approval for the project was the right thing for the city.
“I support the Amazon Last Mile delivery station project because it provides benefits to not only our city, but our community as a whole,” he said. “The project is set to be built in an industrial area, making it the appropriate land use for the project, and also set to create 400 jobs that our community desperately needs.”
Editor’s note: This version of the story adds a comment from Councilman Tony Wu
Related links
- Queen of the Valley in West Covina breaks ground on medical arts building
- West Covina planning commission approves Amazon delivery center, ushers it to City Council
- Amazon Warehouse Injuries Significantly Higher Than Competitors [Infographic]
- West Covina athlete holds a 30-year record in track and field, so Mt. Sac celebrates
Source: https://t-tees.com
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