Why Amazon could open in Napa Valley in 15 months, but scrapped Sonoma project after 2 years

Amazon’s newly built last-mile delivery facility in Napa Valley is similar in size and function to a project the e-commerce giant recently abandoned in Sonoma Valley.

But there are key differences between them that may explain why one got built in just over a year and the other was dropped after nearly two years in progress.

Both were proposed at about the same time, in the first half of 2020.

At an existing 250,000-square-foot warehouse called Victory Station built three years ago along Sonoma Highway just south of the city of Sonoma, a use permit application for an Amazon facility encountered public and county regulatory panel opposition in the months after the January 2020 submission. The debate led to a new use permit about a year later.

That effort came to an end last month when property owner Victory Station LLC told county planning officials Amazon had dropped plans for the facility, after hearing Sonoma County officials sought more traffic and groundwater analysis to move the application along.

About the same time, the retailer also backed out of a deal to lease a 181,000-square-foot warehouse to be built in the industrial parks east of Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa.

Meanwhile, in the southern Napa Valley city of American Canyon, Amazon’s project was approved, with no opposition, within two months after the application was submitted in early May 2020.

And within four months of the original submission, the city issued a building permit for the new 201,600-square-foot facility in DivcoWest's and Orchard Partners's 218-acre Napa Logistics Park off Highway 29 at South Kelly and Devlin roads. It opened last summer.

These facilities, called delivery stations, are part of the Seattle-based Amazon’s plan to handle more of its own deliveries and send fewer packages from its cavernous distribution and sorting centers through such couriers as UPS and FedEx.

Amazon occupies two such sorting facilities, totaling over 1 million square feet, in warehouses built in the past few years in the Solano County city of Vacaville. Before the American Canyon location opened, Amazon was sending its delivery vans to North Bay addresses from an East Bay delivery station.

Opposition to the Victory Station project

Amazon’s proposal to operate at Victory Station encountered permitting challenges in its first year, and at the same time,work on tenant improvements in the building was stopped, according to the Sonoma Index-Tribune.

The Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Committee opposed the project, citing the impact of trucks on Sonoma Highway

Then in February 2021, the county Board of Zoning Adjustments decided the Amazon proposal fit the county’s new zoning definition of a “freight terminal” and thus needed a new use permit.

Permit Sonoma originally determined the use was permitted under current zoning with a design review, but when an adjacent property was acquired to add van parking for the Victory Station project, that agency determination was appealed to the board, department spokesperson Bradley Dunn told the Business Journal.

When the Sonoma County zoning panel called for the new use permit for a freight terminal, it came just after the county Board of Supervisors approved a modernization of the zoning code, which included a change in the definition of freight terminal that incorporated what was proposed for Amazon’s facility in Sonoma Valley.

Dunn said that change in the definition didn’t affect the Victory Station project.

County planning officials in early March sent a letter to the project team that additional traffic and groundwater impact analysis, including a reduction of delivery vans to 85, was incomplete.

American Canyon, by contrast, allows “trucking terminals” in its general industrial zoning districts, and Napa Logistics Park also is in the Napa Airport Specific Plan area, which also allows such facilities, Cooper said.

That Amazon project also was approved before the state, effective July 1, 2020, changed its standards for traffic analysis for greenhouse gas emissions impacts shifted from level of service to vehicle miles traveled.

When the Sonoma County zoning panel called for the new use permit for a freight terminal, it came just after the county Board of Supervisors approved a modernization of the zoning code, which included a change in the definition of freight terminal that incorporated what was proposed for Amazon’s facility in Sonoma Valley.

County planning officials in early March of this year said that additional traffic and groundwater impact analysis, including a reduction of delivery vans to 85, was incomplete.

American Canyon, by contrast, allows “trucking terminals” in its general industrial zoning districts, and Napa Logistics Park also is in the Napa Airport Specific Plan area, which also allows such facilities, American Canyon planning director Brent Cooper said. That Amazon project also was approved before traffic analysis for greenhouse gas emissions impacts shifted from level of service to vehicle miles traveled.

For its part, Amazon across the country has been tight-lipped about its real estate dealings. For example, its statement for why it backed out of the Sonoma County projects mirrored what it told a Pennsylvania publication last month about why it dropped a Philadelphia-area construction plan:

“We weigh a variety of factors when deciding where to develop future sites to best serve our customers. It is common for us to explore multiple locations simultaneously and adjust based on our operational needs.” Amazon said.

Also last month, Amazon reportedly pulled out of a plan for a warehouse in Southern California after challenges from organized labor. And an Amazon warehouse plan for upstate New York is facing objections from the public over increased traffic.

Victory Station developer Jose McNeill said Permit Sonoma’s request for more information was the last straw for Amazon.

American Canyon official Cooper said the Amazon project in his city benefited from several years of planning work at Napa Logistics Park.

“There were a variety of reasons why it went through smoothly,” he told the Business Journal.

Opponents of the Sonoma Valley project were concerned about traffic. The Napa Valley project, because it was revised to be smaller, was estimated to have a smaller traffic impact.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before coming to the Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.