The South Moravian Region offered Amazon its own land near the airport in Brno

Brno - The South Moravian Region today offered the American internet company Amazon its own land for a logistics center between the D1 highway and Brno airport. The land is designated for logistics and is just across the highway within sight of the Černovická Terrace, said the governor Michal Hašek (ČSSD) to journalists in Brno today. According to him, representatives of the online retailer are willing to negotiate the proposal.
    The governor stated that this land has a building permit, but currently it is a cultivated field, and the engineering networks only reach the boundary of the twenty-hectare plot. The South Moravian Region has intervened in the negotiations because it wants to keep a significant investment, which is expected to bring at least 1500 jobs, in southern Moravia. So far, the Brno council has rejected it. The Černovická Terraces are partly owned by the city or the developer.
    A representative from Amazon and the director of the government agency CzechInvest, Ondřej Votruba, arrived in Brno today for discussions. Hašek emphasized that this is an alternative to Brno's offer and is not a competition with the city. "I would be happy if Amazon invested in southern Moravia," he stated. When asked how quickly construction could begin, he did not want to speculate. Amazon pressured Brno for the quickest possible approval for the construction, and now the region will wait for the company's response. "So far, we have received no response; we expect to receive it within a few days, at the latest in two weeks," added Hašek.
    The advantage of the regional offer is that there is no need to build transport infrastructure, as would be the case if there were a highway exit at Černovická Terrace. The civic association Čisté Tuřany, which opposed Amazon at Černovická Terrace, plans to object to the warehouse near the airport. "This does not solve the problem of transport and air quality; the area is even closer to Tuřany. The investor would have to start all processes from announcing the intention," stated Kašpaříková.
    Although Hašek said today that there is an issued zoning and building permit for the area, this apparently does not reflect reality. The building authority must first assess the nonexistent project, issue a zoning decision, and only then a building permit. Furthermore, the processing of all administrative documents may be delayed by a potential environmental impact assessment process. The advantage is that the land is not protected by the law on the protection of agricultural land resources.
    It is still unclear how the Tuřany municipal district will respond to the proposal. "We have too little information yet, so I do not want to comment on it for now," said Aleš Jakubec (ČSSD), the mayor of Tuřany, to ČTK.