More than three dozen Churchill community members attended a public hearing Monday on the proposal for a sweeping mixed-use development at the former Westinghouse Research & Technology Park.
While nearly 45 members attended in person and online, only a handful spoke before Churchill Borough Council on Monday evening. Community members, who previously protested against Amazon redeveloping the site in 2021, said they were concerned about plans to demolish the site’s existing structures and landscaping.
The proposal would revive the footprint of the 50-acre site of the Westinghouse Research & Technology Park, with plans for a walkable mixed-use development that would include two grocery stores, a gas station, a medical facility, an early childhood education center, and several restaurants and retail locations.
Speaking before council, Churchill resident Cathy Bordner said the current draft ordinance fails to address stormwater management and traffic concerns, and improperly categorizes data centers along with server farms and blockchain processing centers that have different zoning permissions.
“I find the ordinance language weak and unacceptable,” Bordner said, commenting that the language around stormwater waste management wasn’t strong enough.
“If the ordinance you are proposing had been worded this way in 2021, and if Amazon had not withdrawn its application and instead built the distribution center, it would just be a matter of time for that system to fail and cause serious flooding,” Bordner said.
Property owner and developer Nicole DeLuca, of Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate, was present at the public hearing. She said she wanted to be sure residents understood the need to define terms like vape shop and data center in the draft ordinance in order to prevent them from being included in the final project.
“We have absolutely no plans for data centers,” DeLuca said. “We want to make this a very walkable, friendly, welcoming development … a special place for the community to go and shop, and maybe be able to see your doctor and maybe also live.”
Comments during the public hearing were limited to three minutes, a rule enforced strictly by Solicitor Gavin Robb. Some residents pointed out that public comments had never been limited in previous hearings, noting that the hearings for Amazon’s proposal would last hours.
Resident Sandra Fox said that she was concerned about plans to demolish existing structures on the property. The mid-century office and research buildings were designed by significant architecture firms and embody the history of that period.
“I wish reuse would be possible instead,” Fox said. “But should demolition occur, it needs to be done safely with maximum attention to best practices.”
The location has sat vacant for decades following Westinghouse’s closure. In 2020, Amazon proposed a massive distribution center for the site. Amazon’s proposal for a 2.9-million-square-foot warehouse faced years of community pushback, ultimately leading a group of people to sue in court. Amazon dropped its plans in 2022.
Nearly every public commenter on Monday expressed concerns about the plan to remove trees from the property, citing their role in stormwater containment.
One former Westinghouse employee said he was at the site during the 2004 hurricane that left the former technology park submerged.
“I worked at the R&D site the day Hurricane Ivan dropped six inches of rain … and I was shocked at the depth of the water,” Churchill resident Ken Balkey said. “And that was with all the trees in place.”
Council will vote on the draft ordinance at next Monday’s meeting.