State monitor vetoes $80M tax break for proposed Amazon warehouse in Orange County
The proposal calls for a 3.2-million-square-foot distribution center on roughly 100 acres near McBride Road, Hoops Road and Route 6, just outside of Middletown.
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A state monitor has vetoed an $80 million tax break from the Orange County Industrial Development Agency for a massive Amazon warehouse that is planned to be built in Orange County.
Amazon sent News 12 a statement, calling the decision, “wrong.”
“This decision from the IDA monitor is wrong procedurally and on the facts. We’re working with the Orange County IDA as we determine our next steps.”
The 3.2-million-square-foot proposal has been controversial from the start. The project was denied by the Wawayanda’s town’s zoning board earlier this year over a height variance but was later approved by the town’s planning board, allowing it to move forward — a decision residents and state officials say is highly unusual.
Earlier this month, environmental advocates filed a lawsuit over the project's potential health and safety impacts.
The proposal calls for a 3.2-million-square-foot distribution center on roughly 100 acres near McBride Road, Hoops Road and Route 6, just outside of Middletown. If built, it would be one of the largest warehouse projects in New York state.
Community groups Save Wawayanda and Protect Orange County praised the monitor’s veto, arguing the Amazon project didn’t meet tax-break guidelines and would have shifted significant risks onto residents. “The public correctly and overwhelmingly rejected such a bad deal,” said Pramilla Malick of Protect Orange County.
