The arrival of Amazon in Brno is not definitively ruled out

Brno - People and organizations can express their opinions on the intention of the developer company CTP Invest to build a warehouse for Amazon in Brno until Monday, December 22. Its arrival is reportedly not definitively ruled out. Once the regional office evaluates the comments, the environmental impact assessment process will gradually be completed. Although Amazon has not actively contacted CTP for over six months, the developer is still waiting to see how the EIA process will turn out, said Tomáš Budař, director of CTP for South Moravia, today after the public discussion of the plan.
The American online retailer Amazon reiterated at the beginning of December that it is looking for a suitable location in Central Europe and given that it has opened three warehouses in Poland, it is not pressed for time. Therefore, even it has not ruled out coming to Brno.
However, further steps will be more complicated for CTP. At the end of the year, the lease agreement with the city for the land on which part of the warehouse was to be built will expire. "We will negotiate with the new political representation and see what the options will be," Budař said. However, the Greens, who have actively opposed Amazon, are now part of the coalition.
People living in new houses on Řípská Street or in the old buildings nearby are mainly concerned about the increased noise resulting from denser traffic. The environmental impact assessment processor claims that the increase in noise and pollutants near Řípská Street will be minimal. However, the area is already excessively burdened by traffic now.
The problem of Amazon's arrival and traffic issues would be resolved only by a new highway exit directly into the industrial zone, which was promised by the Social Democratic government back in 2000. "We have done more for it than we had to. We purchased 75 percent of the land on which the exit is to be built, and we are ready to hand it over to the Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD)," Budař stated. According to him, issues between ŘSD and RWE and Telefónica 02 regarding the relocation of utilities have also been resolved, and the matter is moving towards the zoning procedure.
Amazon would add hundreds of employees' personal cars to the local traffic and, according to the assessment, up to 360 trucks per day. The Americans promised at least 1,500 jobs. They abandoned the plan in Brno at the moment when the Brno city council could not agree on whether they wanted Amazon in Brno or not. Only when Amazon lost interest did the councilors vote for the possibility of placing the warehouse and also for the change in the zoning plan, which originally prohibited warehouses in the industrial zone.