By Nathan Wilson
Columbia Gorge News
ODELL — Pending an unforeseen hiccup or last-minute appeal, Amazon, the multinational tech and retail company, will build a 48,960 square foot warehouse and sorting center on the Lower Hanel Mill land, just south of where Highway 35 intersects with Neal Creek Mill Road outside of Odell.
On Feb. 23, Hood River County’s Community Development Department tentatively approved the company’s application alongside a proposal by the Port of Hood River, which owned the property, to combine four separate tracts into one, 11-acre parcel zoned industrial, or M-1.
Amazon aims to cut delivery times in the Mid-Columbia region with the expansion by reducing trips from distant hubs.
Under section 31.10 of the county’s zoning ordinance, wholesale distributing or outlet facilities are “permitted outright” in M-1 areas, subject only to setbacks, lot coverage and site design standards. Unlike conditional uses, outright uses don’t require the applicant to go through public hearings before the planning commission.
“Everybody who should have got notice was noticed, plus we put it in the paper, posted it online and mailed it to adjacent property owners, agencies, community groups,” said Keith Cleveland, the department’s principal planner and lead on the project. “We followed and probably went over and above the usual notification.”
As part of those criteria for outright uses, the applicant must demonstrate that site access won’t cause congestion or make nearby intersections less safe, which was the primary matter of concern in more than 40 public comments.
“The addition of project traffic is expected to have a nominal impact on the traffic operations at the study intersections,” reads a traffic impact study prepared by NV5 Engineers and Consultants for Amazon. “Improvements at the study intersections are not required.”
The site will generate a total of 548 daily trips, including about 32 line-haul semi-trucks, 134 vans and 382 passenger vehicles, based on the study. Data was collected at four existing intersections: Highway 35 and Neal Creek Mill Road, Highway 35 and Sunday Drive, Highway 35 and Davis Drive, and Neal Creek Mill Road and Sunday Drive. Of the total, 99 trips are expected to occur during peak hours recorded at those intersections.
The majority (70%) of traffic will exit heading northbound on Highway 35 or enter from that direction. Both Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) and county public works endorsed the study.
“ODOT has no issues with the land use application moving forward,” wrote Melissa Gonzales, the agency’s development review coordinator, in a formal response letter. That came after Cleveland asked ODOT to review the study again, given the public comments he received.
As advised by a 2018 real estate strategy, port commissioners unanimously agreed to start entertaining buyers for the Lower Hannel Mill land last April. Previously considered options, like building storage units, were expensive and wouldn’t create any permanent jobs.
Then, Amazon offered to purchase all four shovel-ready sites, which the port had been steadily cleaning up and improving, for $3.41 million, the highest rate per square foot for an industrial parcel of that size and location in the mid-Columbia region to date, according to the port. Although commissioners had talked about details during prior executive sessions, they unanimously authorized Executive Director Kevin Greenwood to sign off on the application and sale agreement during a regular meeting on Sept. 16.
The agenda item, however, was added when the meeting began.
“When there is a property transaction taking place, local agencies typically do not do that in open session because oftentimes the discussion revolves around strategy, price negotiation — things of that nature — that you wouldn’t want the other party to be privy to,” said Greenwood. “But no decisions can be made.”
Commissioners subsequently decided to use proceeds from the sale for two other port projects: $500,000 for a new terminal at Ken Jernstedt Airfield, with the remainder going toward transportation infrastructure at the Riverside Drive and North Second Street intersection.
The Amazon facility is expected to produce $4.5 million annually in local economic activity via direct payroll and spending, support 50-100 direct jobs and generate $97,000 annually in property tax revenue for the county and its districts, according to port estimates.
Since the work predated his time, Greenwood wasn’t immediately able to confirm how much the port had spent cleaning up the Lower Hanel Mill land. But he noted that a portion was grant funded, and emphasized that their efforts were worth it if those estimates pan out.
“It’s a great opportunity for economic development, and it’s going to allow the commission to get closer to their goals on the waterfront in developing transportation infrastructure,” said Greenwood. “That really is the main goal.”
Local land use advocacy group Thrive Hood River had challenged Amazon’s application, calling the traffic study “egregiously inadequate and defective” in a comment to the county. Board Member John Mills stressed that the consultants omitted crash history analysis, sight distance hazards, queuing analysis, bicyclists, and seasonal impacts from the analysis.
But county code only requires “roadway capacity, speed limits and number of turning movements” to be addressed,” which staff emphasized in the notice of decision. As of last Thursday, Cleveland said no party has appealed the decision. Amazon now has four years to meet several conditions described in the notice before its proposal is formally approved.
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