GOSHEN – Developers of a giant five-story Amazon distribution center in the Town of Wawayanda have lost their challenge to a zoning board of appeals decision that denied a height variance for the warehouse that would be over 100 feet high.
Pramila Malick, founder of the group Protect Orange County, is pleased with the decision by Justice Maria Vazquez-Doles.
“I had lost faith in the justice system for a long time, but this judge really did a great job. She really dove deeply into the facts of the case and came out with a decision that is 100 percent consistent with the law as we know it,” she told Mid-Hudson News.
After the ZBA denied the height variance, the town planning board approved the project. That is being played out in another court suit.
The Orange County Industrial Development Agency has granted Amazon financial incentives to build the facility, but a state-appointed monitor rejected the IDA’s granting of those inducements that included a payment in lieu of taxes.
Orange County Partnership President Conor Eckert said, “We focused on supporting dynamic and responsible economic development as next steps play out. Delivering tax revenue, job creation, and opportunities for local labor are critical to long-term community growth and sustainability.”
Leslie Hanes of the group save Wawayanda said, “its time to accept all its negative impacts and lack of appropriateness” of the project.
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