The proposed delivery center would be located at 2001 Gehman Road.
Amazon loves fast delivery—but it could take at least two weeks for Towamencin Township Supervisors to deliver on their decision to accept or deny a conditional use zoning request Wednesday night from the merchandising colossus to turn 2001 Gehman Road into a truck terminal for its new, always-open “last milestone” delivery center.
Supervisors could do this as soon as their March 13 meeting, where they could also render a decision to approve or deny Amazon’s land development waiver request, which calls for, among other things, to make a new drive aisle on the east side of the building, closest to neighboring United Knitting Machine. Parking would be increased to a grand total of 152 spaces, and new exterior aesthetics, like lighting and building improvements, would be created on the Limited Industrial-zoned site, too.
Meredith Ferleger, an attorney with Philadelphia law firm Dilworth Paxson, represented Amazon at the meeting. Ferleger said the 97,000-square-foot facility at the 8-acre property would be a “last milestone” delivery center, which would be the terminal for middle-of-the-night package deliveries via tractor trailer. These semi-trailers would be coming from one of many one-million-square-foot fulfillment centers across the nation.
Amazon also would increase the number of loading bays from 10 to 14.
“Packages would be delivered to this site overnight via semi,” said Ferleger. “They would be unloaded and sorted via ZIP code. As the day shift begins – and we anticipate two waves of day shift – the employee who is responsible for deliveries would show up to the site, drop off his or her personal vehicle, and then pick up a sprinter van or other van provided by Amazon for deliveries.”
Ferleger said Amazon estimates two “major delivery waves” during the day, with as many as 40 vans leaving and returning to the site daily. Amazon plans to employ 100 employees or more – and estimates 68 workers at most on one of its days shifts. It will be open 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year.
“To accommodate the use, we are proposing limited site improvements, and these are the subject of the waiver of land development,” Ferleger said. “We are proposing some additional parking areas to the north of the site, as well as an additional drive aisle, removing existing parking at the south and adding new parking … closer to adjacent I-476 … and then proposing 14 loading bays.”
Interior renovations would not make the building higher, she said, and it would be done within the existing square-footage. There would be self-supporting exterior canopies and loading areas for the delivery vans, she said. Amazon plans to have 40 van parking stalls along the new drive aisle.
“Semis would only be allowed to have access from Gehman Road down toward the cul-de-sac. They would come in, pull to the rear of the building, unload, and go back out,” Ferleger said. “No trucks would be circulating around the site.”
Ferleger said Amazon felt the truck terminal use was a more appropriate use for the site; the request complied with legislative intent, provided for limited and non-offensive industrial uses, avoided an adverse impact on neighboring uses, and proved it was compatible with the character and intensity of surrounding uses.
“This has adequate access to public roads, without creating hazardous conditions,” she said. “Semi-truck traffic would occur overnight, and the impact from larger vehicles would occur in the lowest traffic times at night.”
Supervisor Richard Marino was curious as to the frequency of tractor trailer deliveries.
“That varies,” Ferleger told him. “Fulfillment centers are nationwide, and there is no formula of where a particular truck is coming from to this site. It’s staggered throughout the night … between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m.”
She said there might be 20 tractor-trailers over the course of a night, and it could be a few tractor-trailers every hour for four hours.
Supervisors Chairman Charles Wilson asked for an explanation on the frequency of van traffic from the site.
Ferleger said 40 is the maximum number on site at any given time, and deliveries begin as early as 6:30 a.m.
“We might have 40 leaving the site. I wouldn’t anticipate it could get up to 40 at any given time, but it could,” she said.
Supervisor Dan Littley asked if the vans would contest for space at the loading docks with the tractor-trailers. Jeffrey Dezort, of the civil engineering firm CESO Inc., the architect on the project, answered that the vans would be loaded from a rear entrance, where an associate will cart out packages and load the van under an exterior canopy.
“So, are you using loading docks?” Littley asked. “It’s a loading area,” responded Dezort. “It’s not a recessed loading dock.”
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