Amazon asked Westborough, Massachusetts on 30 October to let it withdraw its application for a Prime Air drone base. The request came 11 days after a town meeting voted 510 to 13 to bar drone launch pads.
The letter asks the Planning Board to approve the withdrawal “without prejudice”, WHDH and This Week in Worcester reported. That leaves Amazon free to file again. Amazon “looks forward to continuing to work with Town officials on next steps,” the letter says.
State Senator Michael Moore and Representatives Hannah Kane and Kate Donaghue announced the move after Amazon called them that night. They said they were “extremely pleased”. Congressman Jim McGovern called it “a major victory for people power” on 31 October.
What Amazon had planned
Amazon wanted to turn part of the parking lot at its 64 Otis Street fulfillment center into a takeoff and landing area for its MK30 drones. It would have been Prime Air’s first site in New England. Amazon told residents it hoped to make up to 1,000 deliveries a day there, This Week in Worcester reported.
The town’s building commissioner ruled on 26 August that the drone base was an accessory use of the warehouse, allowed as of right. That meant it needed only site plan approval. Residents appealed the ruling on 25 September, and Amazon asked the Planning Board to wait for the appeal, the town says.
What a new application would face
The bylaw voted on 19 October bars launch pads and drop zones for commercial drones anywhere in town. The town clerk sent it to the attorney general on 22 October. It also needs the approval of the state’s aeronautics division before it takes effect.
That division wrote to Amazon on 22 October that Prime Air cannot proceed without its certificate of approval. It plans at least one public hearing before deciding on one. On 27 October Westborough and other affected towns and cities wrote to the FAA and Amazon, backing a call by Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren for a site-specific environmental assessment.
FlightBrief analysis: a withdrawal decides nothing. No Westborough board has yet ruled on whether a drone base counts as part of a warehouse’s ordinary use, and the bylaw that would bar one still waits for the state.
The town still lists the residents’ appeal for its zoning board of appeals on 2 November. The Planning Board’s hearing on Amazon’s site plan stands continued to 10 November.
