A mammoth new warehouse facility proposed for a busy Ashburn intersection continues to move its way through the county system. And now we know definitively who is behind the project — the worldwide retailer Amazon.
Back in August, The Burn reported about a mystery warehouse facility proposed for a large parcel of undeveloped land on the northwest corner of Russell Branch Parkway and Ashburn Village Boulevard.
That’s a large wooded lot across the street from the Ashbrook Marketplace shopping center (Lidl, Starbucks, Planet Fitness, Rubino’s Pizzeria, McAlister’s Deli, etc.).
At the time, the company behind the plans wasn’t named. Nevertheless, based on the layout featuring hundreds of parking spaces as well as loading lanes and distribution areas, we speculated it was a proposal for one of Amazon’s “Last Mile Delivery” facilities.
These are distribution centers where shipments wind up before the familiar blue Amazon delivery vans take them on the last leg of their journey — the “last mile” — to the customer’s doorstep.
Now in a filing with Loudoun County on Friday, all doubt was removed. The paperwork states Amazon.com Services LLC is the lessee of the land.
“The Applicant proposes the development and construction of a last-mile delivery station on the Property, featuring temporary warehousing of consumer goods, which would be delivered by van to consumers at off-site addresses,” reads the memorandum.
The plans appear to call for a 142,000+ s.f. facility as well as roughly 300 parking spaces for associates and more than 670 parking spaces for various vans, trucks and other vehicles.
The original filing estimated there would be approximately “1,480 daily trips, primarily consisting of passenger vehicles, but including 42 tractor-trailer truck trips and 460 delivery van trips a day.”
The main question at this point seems to surround the zoning of the property. Is the proposed facility allowed “by right” under current zoning, or would it have to be rezoned, which would need county approval?
One other interesting note — this piece of land is reportedly the last undeveloped parcel in the original Ashburn Village neighborhood project that started way back in the 1980s.
(Image at top: Amazon)
these asswipes better be paying my property taxes if that eye sore and traffic disaster actually happens. how much incompetence, or grift, does it take to put a facility like that essentially in the middle of a residential area?
Waste of space with the massive need for affordable housing
Ugh.. traffic nightmares around that area now. Another huge loss of quality of life in northen Ashburn. This is the same area that they just cut down a forest to put a strip mall in front of an older strip mall.
Looking at whether this property , zoned PDIP was under the 1972 ordinance or the 1993 ordinance. Ashburn Village zoning approval took place well before the 1993 ordinance was approved and typically the language to “up zone parcels in the 72 was not usually include in re-zoning packages at that time.
This will be an awful traffic nightmare and increase the amount of truck traffic through Ashburn Village tremendously.
Thank your representatives for approving this.
Hate to be cynical, but who is getting paid off to allow this zoning? It would be a huge amount of traffic, impeding others who need to travel this route to get to stores and other businesses. Surely another location can be found! What can be done to prevent this application? Suggestions needed, PLEASE!
Let’s see if Loudoun County has the Kahunas to say “No” to Amazon and this neighborhood monstrosity and see if they can negotiate to get this located to RT 606 west of Dulles Airport where it belongs.
Great. I can’t wait for the taxes for that land to be passed on to the loudoun residents with the back door deal loudoun does. Why else would a business build in the highest tax area in our region. Make the documents public and highlight the county officials who drafted it.
I can’t imagine a development less in sync with the neighborhood. Increased traffic, pollution, noise inside an established 5000 home community? No thank you Jeff Bezos.
This is NOT a by right development. It would need BOS approval.
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