GORHAM — Amazon’s proposal to build a 158,000-square-foot distribution facility near the town center is riling neighbors and raising concerns about the hundreds of vehicles that would arrive and depart daily.

The online megaretailer is expected to submit a site plan soon to build the facility on 94 acres off Main Street (Route 25). A public hearing could be held as soon as March 2, if the plan is submitted by Monday, said Tom Poirier, the town’s community development director.

“I’m not seeing any red flags at this point,” Poirier said, noting that the property is zoned for industrial uses and the planning board would review the project for compliance with land use regulations.

Increased traffic congestion tops the list of concerns lodged at recent town meetings, including from residents of Shamrock Drive, whose backyards border the property, and the Gateway Commons development directly across Main Street.

An Amazon spokesperson didn’t respond to repeated requests for information about the facility and how it would affect the Gorham area.

A preliminary plan shows the round-the-clock operation would have over 1,000 parking spaces for delivery vans and other vehicles, and 18 spaces for tractor-trailers bringing goods from larger Amazon facilities.

Many trucks would travel nearly 5 miles along Route 25, through downtown Westbrook and along the Westbrook Arterial, to Exit 47 of the Maine Turnpike (Interstate 95), Poirier said.

Here’s what we know about Amazon’s plans so far.

The distribution center is part of a $4 billion initiative Amazon unveiled last April to grow its rural delivery network across the U.S. and provide faster service to less densely populated areas.

It’s a “last mile” delivery station, Poirier said, intended to coordinate the final stretch of service to small towns. A 15,000-square-foot delivery station — less than a tenth of the size of what could be built in Gorham — opened in Caribou last August to serve northern Maine. Others are expected to be proposed near Lewiston, Augusta and Bangor, he said.

In southern Maine, Amazon packages are currently stored and delivered by third parties, including the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS. The nearest Amazon sorting and fulfillment centers appear to be in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to the company’s website.

Amazon didn’t answer whether the Gorham facility would only handle packages already shipped or would also warehouse some goods to fulfill orders.

The project would be built on a parcel of former farmland that the town is developing as an extension of its industrial park.

The town council voted 5-2 last August to sell the site to Amazon for $4 million. The deal isn’t done — the council and the company both retain options to back out. Gorham could be required to reimburse Amazon for permitting fees if the town nixes the agreement.

The land sale would help to offset $5.9 million town voters agreed to borrow in 2020 to buy 141 acres (including the proposed Amazon site) and convert the former cow pasture into an industrial park.

Two previous proposals for the site have fallen through, according to the town’s website.

Core X Partners agreed in 2022 to pay $1.9 million for 41.4 acres of the proposed Amazon site to build a 106,000-square-foot cold storage facility, but that deal expired in 2024. Bisson Transportation Inc., a trucking company, agreed to pay $2.8 million for the other 52.5 acres but terminated the deal in 2024.

Reactions have been mixed, with concerns from residential neighbors and planning board members focusing on added traffic and environmental impacts.

The mostly single-story building would be 30 feet in height and with paved areas would cover 22 of the 94 acres. Neighbors say they would be able to see the facility from their backyards and front porches.

At 158,000 square feet, the building would have a slightly smaller footprint than the Costco in Scarborough.

At town council meeting in January, a protester who declined to give his name, held a sign that read, “Stop This SCAMazon!”

“The level of traffic coming into town probably far exceeds what any of us can imagine,” one resident said at a planning board meeting in December.

Andrea Chadburn of Shamrock Drive said she worries about traffic, noise, vehicle emissions and light pollution that would be generated by a facility operating around the clock in an area with many families.

“A 24-7 operation of this size is a very different beast,” Chadburn said in an email to town officials. “Being so close to a neighborhood, I don’t think we have a clear understanding of what the impact will be to us.”

The planning board will decide whether Amazon’s site plan complies with the town’s land use regulations. The town council has no say over site plans.

The proposal calls for surface parking to include 565 spaces for delivery vans and the vehicles of delivery drivers and 330 spaces for employees working inside the facility, Poirier said.

It also calls for 50 spaces closer to the building, where delivery vans would queue, and 50 spaces beside the building, where they would be loaded, according to a sketch plan presented by Christopher Taylor, project engineer with Sebago Technics.

The plan also shows 15 docking spaces and 3 parking spaces for tractor-trailers, and 13 “stalls” for box trucks or other vehicles. Most tractor-trailers would arrive, unload and depart right away, Taylor told the planning board in December.

The site would have separate access roads for employees, delivery vans and tractor-trailers. Amazon also has indicated it would widen a stretch of Main Street (Route 25) near the facility, including turning lanes, Poirier said.

Amazon didn’t respond to emailed questions about delivery hours, tractor-trailer frequency and other potential impacts on traffic, which will be reviewed for congestion and safety concerns by the Maine Department of Transportation.

The department sent a notice to abutters in December that said the development would generate 335 “passenger car equivalent” trips during peak morning hours, 377 trips during peak midday hours and 321 trips during peak evening hours.

The company told town officials that it would schedule arrivals and departures to avoid heavy commuter hours, Poirier said. Delivery vans likely would operate during daylight hours, when people normally would expect to receive packages, he said.

The proposed Gorham Connector, which was shelved last year, probably wouldn’t have solved residents’ traffic concerns about the proposed Amazon project.

The 5-mile, four-lane toll highway extension would have stretched from Exit 45 of the Maine Turnpike, near the Maine Mall in South Portland, through Westbrook, to the Gorham Bypass at Route 114, south of the town center. As a result, trucks traveling to and from the proposed Amazon site would have to travel through the town center to get to the connector.

The Amazon proposal would maintain a boundary buffer of more than 100 feet and includes some woodlands and wetlands, Poirier said, which is why the project also requires permits from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The expansion of Amazon’s rural network is expected to create more than 100,000 full- and part-time jobs nationwide and allow the company to deliver over 1 billion additional packages annually.

The Gorham hub would add about 175 full- and part-time jobs, in keeping with other facilities in the last-mile network. More jobs would be created for van drivers, including small delivery companies and independent drivers who use their own vehicles, according to Amazon’s website.

“For those in full-time roles, our delivery stations provide an average hourly wage nearly triple the federal minimum (of $7.25 per hour) and benefits like health care from day one of employment,” the website states.

About 50 workers would be employed to build the facility.

Gorham’s land sale agreement with Amazon includes no property tax breaks and town officials haven’t calculated the potential tax benefits of adding Amazon to the commercial tax base, Poirier said.

While larger than the Caribou delivery station, the Gorham proposal is significantly smaller than fulfillment centers in Massachusetts and beyond, which range from nearly 1 million square feet to over 4 million square feet.

Amazon courted Scarborough officials a few times in recent years, most recently in 2022, when the company was eyeing a site on Running Hill Road, according to Karen Martin, executive director of the town’s economic development agency.

Martin said the company wanted to build a “first-mile” facility, where goods would be warehoused and prepared for distribution. The project never materialized because the site wasn’t zoned for industrial uses, didn’t have access to a public sewerage line and had potential traffic challenges, she said.

In November, Westbrook Mayor David Morse said he would delay commenting on Amazon’s plans until he knew more about the proposal.

“I consulted with staff and have been advised that right now all we know is that Amazon has an option on town of Gorham property to perform their due diligence to determine if that location is suitable for their proposed development,” Morse said in an email to the Press Herald. “At this time, we don’t know what they are looking to do… No one has reached out to Westbrook about specifics of the project yet.”

Morse noted that the city would be invited to participate in the state transportation department’s review of the proposal. Morse didn’t respond to a call to update the city’s position on the project.

Mark Curtis, committee chair of the Gorham Economic Development Corp., said there are some “universal truths” about a project as large as the Amazon proposal in Gorham.

“(The) corporation’s mission is to encourage non-residential diversification and growth of the tax base,” Curtis said in an email to the Press Herald. The name of the buyer doesn’t matter, he said, only that the proposal is consistent with the town’s land use code and the applicant can adhere to approved operating standards.

“An investment of this nature represents a unique opportunity for Gorham to balance economic growth with community needs and reinforces the town’s role as a hub for regional jobs and innovation,” he said. “Public engagement and planning board review will ensure project plans are aligned with Gorham’s development standards and provide opportunities to address community concerns.”