There are laws requiring developers to present their proposal to the community for public comment, if zoning changes are needed. Wegmans sent several representatives from their company and from consulting teams that have been working on the project for nearly a year to present their requests for zoning changes to approximately 800 concerned residents at Oak Knoll Middle School on February 6, 2020.
The meeting opened with an infomercial style presentation to try to demonstrate all of the wonderful things a company like Wegmans brings to the community. The meeting then turned to discussion of the site plans and proposed zoning changes. This was the first real opportunity for a concerned community to tell the County and Wegmans that they felt like the plans failed to address the needs and rights of citizens. Here are a few "highlights" from the meeting:
The proposed distribution center will be approximately 1.5 million square feet.
The facility will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The tractor trailers will use the same roads our neighborhoods rely on for bus routes, bike trails, and commuting.
The building will be built in a "V" shape, which will have the effect of funneling noise towards the neighborhoods.
Wegmans stated on numerous occasions that only two zoning changes were requested, but citizens pointed to a larger list of proposed changes.
Many more concerns were relayed than could be captured here. Many of these are concerns that people in the community thought that the Board of Supervisors would already be considering.
This meeting was a real eye opener for county residents.
Imagine a building of this scale just feet away from a working class suburban neighborhood. The images above appear to have significantly more distance between the facility and the neighborhoods than that proposed by Wegmans.