An aerial view of the empty Lower Hanel Mill property, previously owned by the Port of Hood River. Nestled between Neal Creek Mill Road (left) and Highway 35 (right), Amazon’s new warehouse and sorting center will neighbor Cardinal Glass Industries, Lester Moving & Storage, the G.S. Long Company, Neal Creek Forest Products and several other businesses.
An aerial view of the empty Lower Hanel Mill property, previously owned by the Port of Hood River. Nestled between Neal Creek Mill Road (left) and Highway 35 (right), Amazon’s new warehouse and sorting center will neighbor Cardinal Glass Industries, Lester Moving & Storage, the G.S. Long Company, Neal Creek Forest Products and several other businesses.
HOOD RIVER CO. — Amazon has appealed the decision by Hood River County’s Planning Commission, which Columbia Gorge News reported in late May, to deny its application for a 49,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on Highway 35, just south of Davis Drive.
A final hearing before the board of commissioners is set for Monday, Aug. 17, at 6 p.m. County staff are recommending it be held “on the record,” meaning that only evidence presented as part of the original application or during the planning commission’s deliberations may be discussed.
Earlier, on June 15, the community development department released its written notice of the commission’s decision. While it was determined that Amazon’s facility would be a use permitted outright in industrial zones, Commissioner Jon Kelter Gehrig argued the application didn’t satisfy site design standards laid out in county code, namely that “site access will not cause dangerous intersections or traffic congestion.”
Summarizing Gehrig’s reasoning, the notice reads, “... the standard in Article 31, Section 31.60A can and should likewise be viewed broadly to include consideration of additional traffic data and other local and seasonal impacts beyond what was analyzed in the [traffic impact study] or required by [Oregon’s Department of Transportation] and the county public works department.”
While the study examined four nearby intersections, Gehrig thought it necessary to incorporate delivery traffic routed through Odell, according to the notice. He also pushed for data that accounted for increased loads on Highway 35 during harvest and ski season, alongside peak tourism and online shopping periods.
The facility would generate a total of 548 daily trips, based on numbers from that traffic study. That figure may jump anywhere from 33-50% over the winter holidays, and a couple of other times per year. Both the state and county signed off on Amazon’s study, but commissioners sided with Gehrig in a 5-2 vote May 27.
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