Planning board approves Amazon container and parking alterations at airport-leased Rogers Drive site

The City of Cody Planning, Zoning and Adjustment Board on May 15 approved a commercial site plan and a corresponding architecture and landscaping plan to install an 8-by-40-foot prefabricated storage container to be used for Amazon package drop-off/pick-up on airport-leased property. The application was submitted by Katamount Construction Inc. for Amazon operations.

Mark Christensen (ABI PC) presented the staff report. He said the container would sit on airport-leased property off Rogers Drive near the new terminal and that Amazon employees would use the site only for drop-off and pick-up of packages; no public access or on-site Amazon employees were planned beyond those pickup/drop-off uses. Christensen said the property is in the Industrial E zoning district, which permits storage, and staff found no significant concerns with access, parking, grading, stormwater, utilities, snow storage, fencing, fire suppression, signs or frontage status. For the commercial site plan staff recommended approval subject to the requirement that a building permit for the display unit be obtained before placement.

Christensen told the board the zoning chapter includes an explicit exemption for certain airport-related properties from the city's lighting-code requirements "due to the requirements to be in conformance with the Federal Aviation Administration." Board members asked whether the FAA would object if the applicant agreed to full-cutoff, downward-facing fixtures; staff said local code lists an exemption and that airport/FAA requirements would govern, and that whether the board could compel nonexempt fixtures would be a legal question.

Tarek Wafai, Amazon economic development manager for the Mountain West, spoke for Amazon, saying the project helps small and medium-sized businesses grow and that Amazon would try to balance the board's lighting preferences with FAA compliance. "We will do our best to make sure that we can capture both the wishes of the board here in addition to complying with the FAA," he said.

On parking modifications, the applicant said the container would be placed in the front third of the existing parking area with three parking spaces on either side for delivery drivers to park, open the dock door, and retrieve packages.

The board approved 7B1 (commercial site plan) with the staff condition that a building permit be obtained prior to placement, and approved 7B2 (architecture and landscaping) with no conditions. Both motions passed by voice vote.

The staff report and board discussion note that the lighting chapter exemption means final lighting requirements will be governed by airport/FAA standards; the applicant indicated willingness to consider downward-facing fixtures if compatible with those standards.