On July 14, Churchill’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of Hillwood’s zoning application to build a state-of-the-art Amazon fulfillment center on the abandoned Westinghouse property in Churchill (“Churchill Planning Commission recommends plan for Amazon center,” July 15, TribLIVE). Borough council now is holding approval hearings.

Reasons this facility should be built:

Active until the 1990s, this property housed over 1 million square feet in seven buildings. Abandoned since then, these buildings are loaded with asbestos, lead, mold and chemicals. No other feasible use has been proposed given the site’s massive demolition and remediation costs.

The conditional use process required Hillwood to conduct engineering studies demonstrating zoning compliance. These studies all have been finalized and approved by the borough’s engineers and relevant agencies. Acceptable mitigations are agreed. This process will yield many project changes that will benefit all Churchill residents.

Assuming the property is assessed at $300 million, there will be new annual real estate tax revenues of over $2 million (borough), over $8 million (school district) and over $1 million (county).

The project will provide 1,000-1,500 full-time jobs with benefits, significant construction jobs and other important local/regional benefits.

This project’s transformational impacts are substantial. I strongly support it. Trust the process and the professionals.

Eric Grotzinger

Penn Hills

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