Our View: Amazon means jobs, but questions also need answers

Those goods don’t stay at the airport long. In a precisely choreographed logistical ballet, they are quickly sorted, trucked to Amazon distribution facilities and eventually delivered to our homes and businesses.

Amazon’s fulfillment and distribution center network has created thousands of jobs across the country and injected millions of dollars into local economies. The company is in the midst of a building spree that will result in about 1,000 small delivery hubs near cities and suburbs.

In recent years, Amazon has built dozens of warehouses in and around Chicago, and now it seems likely that Crystal Lake will join the list of communities that the e-retailer calls home. The Crystal Lake City Council will vote Wednesday on a plan to build a 183,000-square-foot delivery station on 63 acres at 275 S. Main St. The proposal received the unanimous approval of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

Delivery stations are the last stop before packages are sent to their final destinations, and the one proposed for Crystal Lake would create 500 jobs, divided between associates working inside the facility and drivers.

It’s hard not to like the proposal. Still, it’s important to think through the project’s overall impact on quality of life and municipal finances before giving it a green light. Some issues for discussion:

Traffic infrastructure: There’s no question the Amazon facility would drive an increase in truck traffic, and documents obtained from the city predicted that the average traffic volume at the intersection of Exchange Drive and Congress Parkway would rise by 12.5%. A traffic study commissioned by the city recommended a number of improvements designed to make sure the extra traffic can safely pass through the area. Fortunately, traffic is expected to move in and out of the delivery station at odd hours. Truck deliveries to the station would occur overnight. Delivery vans would leave the site between 9:50 and 11:50 a.m. and return between 7:10 and 9:10 p.m., not traditional rush hours.

Public safety: The Crystal Lake police force has 67 officers and 16 civilian employees. The Fire Department has a staff of 69. It’s fair to ask whether those numbers will need to be increased to deal with the accidents and other public health and safety challenges that inevitably arise when you construct a big building with hundreds of people going in and out all day every day.

The fiscal outlook: The project is certain to cost the city money; the infrastructure improvements are simply one example. And it’s unclear as of today what kind of incentives Amazon will expect. According to a report last year by the Better Government Association, Amazon by then already had wheedled at least $740 million in taxpayer-financed incentives to help pay for its expansion in northeastern Illinois. The question is whether the property taxes and other revenues generated by the new distribution station will cover such costs in a reasonable time frame and quickly generate incremental revenue for the city. The taxpayers deserve to see a revenue projection posthaste.

Worker quality of life: The 500 jobs will start at $18 and $22 an hour, or about $37,000 to $45,000 a year. It’s reasonable to wonder whether those wages will be sufficient to allow workers to live close to their jobs and contribute to the civic life in the community where they work. Or would most of the workers see Amazon as a second job or as a seasonal opportunity?

Although the specifics in this case are particular to Crystal Lake, we think it’s crucial for any community to think hard when Amazon comes calling.

That said, none of these challenges needs to be a deal-breaker. Amazon has become essential to how many of us shop, especially during the pandemic. But it’s also essential to get all the facts out in the open so the decision on Amazon is made by clearheaded, well-informed public officials acting in taxpayers’ best interests.

The people who live in the Rockford flight path have long since learned to treat the whine of jet engines as background music. So, too, have residents in places such as Joliet and Naperville grown accustomed to the rumble of the trucks moving in and out of Amazon facilities in those communities. You know what they call it? The sound of money.