SPRING HILL — Amazon has begun building a delivery station on Anderson Snow Road, bringing new jobs, and more traffic, to a corridor where drivers already are navigating construction for a new traffic light and a widened roadway.
Amazon.com Services LLC owns the 70.6-acre parcel at 2318 Anderson Snow Road, near Radiant Church (formerly Crosspointe Church), according to Hernando County property records. The site, at the southeast corner of Anderson Snow Road and Corporate Boulevard, recently was clear-cut, leaving only a few patches of vegetation along its edges.
“Our team has begun construction on a new delivery station in Spring Hill — one that will provide local customers with faster delivery while creating jobs in the community,” Amazon spokesman Austin Stowe said.
A delivery station is the final stop in Amazon’s network before packages reach customers’ doorsteps, according to the company. Packages arrive from nearby fulfillment and sortation centers, then are sorted into routes and loaded into vehicles for the last leg of delivery.
The Spring Hill station will operate like the company’s facilities in Tampa and Groveland, Amazon said in an email. The company said it has invested more than $55 billion in Florida since 2010 in infrastructure and jobs and employs more than 57,000 people statewide.
County commissioners cleared the way for the project nearly five years ago, voting 4-1 in January 2022 to allow a 250,000-square-foot delivery and distribution center on the property that would operate around the clock. The lone dissenter warned that trucks would overwhelm already congested roads nearby.
County officials welcomed Amazon’s arrival.
“This investment underscores Hernando County’s commitment to attracting major employers and expanding economic opportunities for our community,” County Administrator Jeff Rogers said.
“Amazon’s investment in Hernando County reflects the strength of our strategic location, business environment and growing economic momentum,” Economic Development Director Valeria Pianta said.
Amazon has not said when the station will open, how many people it will employ or whether the building will match the size approved in 2022.
“We’ll continue to work with local officials and look forward to sharing more details as plans progress,” Stowe said.
Approved in 2022
The County Commission rezoned the site as a corporate park for office use in January 2018, but nothing was built.
In late 2021, a petitioner asked the county to revise the site’s master plan to allow a 250,000-square-foot delivery and distribution center with parking. The facility would run 24 hours a day, with most truck traffic during off-peak hours, according to the request, which also sought permission to build to 50 feet, 5 feet above the 45-foot height limit.
The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval 5-0 on Dec. 13, 2021, in a three-minute hearing with no public comment and no discussion.
The County Commission took up the request Jan. 11, 2022, and approved it after about 20 minutes of debate. Commissioners Steve Champion, Elizabeth Narverud, Wayne Dukes and Jeff Holcomb voted yes. Commissioner John Allocco voted no.
‘That road is a disaster’
“I understand this is another distribution center?” asked Champion, then the commission chairman.
“Yes, for logistics,” replied Ronald Pianta, then the county’s planning and zoning director.
Allocco said he struggled with putting a distribution center in that area.
“There’s just no good place for any trucks to go, as far as I look at it,” he said. “They’re going to come out on County Line Road or they’re going to come out on Spring Hill Drive, and both of them are a disaster for trucks going in and out.”
Ronald Pianta said the property is part of the airport’s planned development and long had been designated industrial. It previously was approved for a 19-lot industrial and business park, with plans that once called for buildings of 750,000 and 650,000 square feet.
“Given the size of the property, it’s considerably less,” he said of the new request.
Champion called the project “perfect” but said “that road is a disaster,” adding that tractor-trailers would make it worse.
Kami Corbett, an attorney with Hill Ward Henderson who represented the petitioner, said the developer expected to conduct a traffic study and make road improvements, including dedicating right of way. Commissioners also changed a condition that had required the developer to relocate an existing drainage pond at the intersection. Instead, the developer would make intersection improvements and work with the county on drainage.
“Having the unified development, I think is actually beneficial in terms of being able to improve that roadway,” Corbett said. She added that the site would see delivery vans, not just big trucks.
Champion said the intersection would need a traffic light. Ronald Pianta said one already was in the county’s plans, and County Engineer and Public Works Director Scott Herring agreed it was needed.
Allocco remained skeptical.
“Obviously, Anderson Snow is going to need improvements,” he said. “You could improve it and make it 10 lanes. It’s not going to make a difference when you get on Spring Hill (Drive) or County Line Road. That’s my concern.”
Herring said distribution centers typically stagger trips to avoid peak hours.
“That will take up some of the slack capacity that’s available during the non-peak hours,” he said.
Champion said the road would need turn lanes long enough to hold tractor-trailers so trucks waiting to turn left wouldn’t block traffic. Allocco said his bigger worry was wear and tear on roads the county would have to maintain, pointing to damage he had seen from heavy trucks on U.S. 19 near Flammer Ford.
Gary Stroud, the only member of the public to speak, urged approval. He said the county had spent years trying to attract this kind of development, and residents couldn’t wait decades more for the jobs. Even if the roads were widened to 37 lanes, he said, drivers still would wait to turn.
“This is the type of development that we need — 250,000 square feet — that is not going to have a lot of law enforcement visitors, they’re not going to have a lot of fire engines,” Stroud said. “And they’re going to be contributing in a big way to all of that.”
When Champion asked whether the county could require trucks to use certain routes, Herring said it could.
“The hard part is enforcing it,” he said. “Legally, you can do anything. The question is can it be enforced appropriately to achieve the desired outcome you want.”
Dukes moved to approve the plan, and Holcomb seconded. Champion said he considered the project a good thing for the county.
Nearly five years later, crews are installing the traffic light commissioners said the road would need.