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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Tallahassee’s long-anticipated Amazon fulfillment site is taking shape, bringing with it about 1,000 jobs.
But some who live nearby worry it will also bring increased traffic.
Leon County staff say the center is expected to open in the spring of next year.
Located on Mahan Drive on the city’s east side, the facility will bring with it 3,682 additional cars and trucks every day, according to a traffic impact report.
“Obviously, there’s going to be an increase in traffic in the area,” said Barry Wilcox, with Leon County Development Support and Environmental Management.
For residents, like Craig Brown, who lives on Vineland Drive, the intersection of Vineland and Mahan is of greatest concern.
“It’s going to make it very hard and dangerous to get in and out of this neighborhood,” Brown said.
Brown lives about a mile away from the Amazon site.
He’s one of several who has voiced concerns about building the center so close to their neighborhood.
“We were concerned about several things,” Brown said. “Noise, traffic, pollution, and just basically the footprint of the thing.”
According to the traffic impact report, this fulfillment center will cause an additional 45 seconds of delay for cars traveling south, toward the Vineland neighborhood during morning rush hour.
“The congestion is already there,” Brown said. “And it’s only going to get worse with the addition of this Amazon traffic.”
But county staff say the fulfillment center is in an ideal location, near two major highways and an interchange.
Amazon has also extended Vineland Drive to lead all the way up to the center and built a left-turn lane heading into the site.
“All those all those improvements were done to mitigate that delay,” Wilcox said. “It’s not saying you won’t potentially see a delay out there, but it won’t be a sizeable delay.”
County staff says alternative building options that were proposed for that site included a minor league baseball stadium and an outdoor shopping center—both of which, they say, would have generated more traffic than the fulfillment center.
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