Municipal pushback to the controversial Amazon Prime drone delivery proposal that locals and lawmakers have been sounding the alarm about for weeks is growing, from the 15 cities and towns that say they’ll be impacted by the delivery service and the trade group that represents Massachusetts’ 351 municipalities.
The communities that expect to be impacted by the delivery service this week urged the Federal Aviation Administration and Amazon to listen to their concerns, evaluate region-specific impacts and incorporate public participation in the process. The Massachusetts Municipal Association added its own pushback to the retail giant’s proposal to deliver Prime Air packages weighing less than 5 pounds by unmanned aircraft within a 7.5-mile radius of its Westborough fulfillment center.
“The decisions made in Westborough will extend well beyond the town. Companies other than Amazon are already securing federal certification for drone delivery, and many operators are likely to convert existing distribution sites in the same way,” MMA Executive Director and CEO Adam Chapdelaine wrote in a Wednesday evening letter to Jonathan Greeley, Amazon’s head of economic development for New England, and Tareq Wafaie, the company’s economic development policy manager…