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More local governments are restricting or outright banning new warehouses that may be required to support the next stage of e-commerce growth.
Among the recent local uprisings, the Board of Trustees of the city of Deerfield, Illinois, in early February updated its industrial zoning code to prohibit fulfillment centers used for the parking or moving of trucks due to concerns about pollution and traffic congestion.
In Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania, the city’s planning commission also in early February delayed a vote on preliminary land development plans for a proposed 150,000-square-foot warehouse after a standing-room-only crowd at a town meeting raised concerns over traffic and noise.
In mid-February, the township of Hillsborough, New Jersey, asked county officials to follow a move by neighboring Middlesex County and conduct a regional study of truck and car traffic related to recent warehouse development.
"Warehouse proposals are impacting the entire state," Hillsborough’s Mayor Robert Britting told My Central Jersey. "These proposals have a significant impact, not only for the town they are in, but all surrounding towns that lead to the major road arteries."
Similar protests have erupted over the last year in Tacoma, Washington; Monmouth, New Jersey; Monroe, Georgia; Mount Pleasant, New York; and Perryman, Maryland. In some cases, the protests are over the tax incentives handed out to warehouse operators for the jobs the facilities bring. Also often cited are fears over declining property values due to the combination of pollution, public safety, and quality of life impacts.
A Wall Street Journal article notes that warehouse protests have been increasing in recent years.
“Nimbyism is much more of an issue,” Seth Martindale, senior managing director in CBRE Group’s Americas consulting practice that helps companies identify warehouse sites, told the WSJ. “People want next-day delivery but they don’t want to see a distribution center next to them.”
The warehouses may be needed to support e-commerce growth. Insider Intelligence has forecast that U.S. e-commerce growth will expand at a 10% rate over the next four years to surpass 20% of overall retail sales by 2027.
Property executives and e-commerce companies cite the benefits of jobs and tax revenues the facilities bring to the area. They also tout eco-benefits with local warehousing closer to residential areas, supporting shorter journeys and lower emissions.
The local resistance has resulted in longer delays and higher costs. Analysis by Prologis, the real estate investment trust company, concluded that “e-commerce requires three times more logistics space than brick-and-mortar sales because of piece picking, product variety, direct-to-consumer shipping and the need to process returns.”
Existing warehouses may also require higher costs to address community concerns. Some legislators are seeking to regulate emissions from mega-warehouses and promote the use of zero-emission vehicles.