Blue Water proposes 650,000‑sq.-ft. Amazon fulfillment center for Waterbury site; wetland hearings set

Blue Water Property Group presented plans for a multi‑story Amazon fulfillment center on a roughly 183‑acre site that straddles the city of Waterbury and the borough of Nagat, saying the company submitted wetland permit applications in late August and that public hearings are scheduled for Oct. 2 and Oct. 3.

"We have submitted our Wetland application to both Waterberry and nagat at the end of August and we have public hearing scheduled for October 2nd and 3rd," Christina Bernardin, a Blue Water project lead, told the public. She said the development team includes engineers, wetland scientists and architects who have worked on earlier feasibility and design stages.

Bernardin described the proposed building as a roughly 650,000‑square‑foot, four‑and‑a‑half‑story fulfillment center with a two‑story parking garage and surface trailer parking. She said upper floors are dedicated to deep storage and picking, with packing and shipping on the ground floor, and that such facilities typically operate around the clock.

"This is Amazon's fulfillment center," Bernardin said, adding that the site design and traffic patterns prioritize separating employee vehicle access from trailer circulation. Tim, an engineer with Langan involved in the design, showed a site plan that places employee parking and the main employee entrance on Sheridan Drive while locating trailer and truck access on Great Hill Road, with fencing and sound walls proposed to limit visibility and noise from trailer parking.

Tim said the project will be reviewed by the state Office of State Traffic Administration (OSTA) and by an independent third‑party peer reviewer commissioned by the municipalities, and that proposed roadway improvements include reconstruction of the South Main Street/Sheridan intersection, added turn lanes and a widened Route 8 southbound off‑ramp.

The project team said the development will comply with Connecticut DEEP's updated stormwater management requirements (March 2024). "This project will comply with those requirements," Tim said, and he described detention systems, rain gardens, above‑ground basins and filters included in a roughly 500‑page stormwater management report submitted as part of the application.

Dean Gustafson, a senior wetland scientist on the team, said his fieldwork identified "just shy of 15 acres of wetlands across this site," composed of about 10 distinct wetland systems concentrated on the east and west edges of the property. He said the largest system, identified as Wetlands 8 and N, includes a perennial water course and vernal pools.

Gustafson told the audience the proposal is designed to avoid direct wetland impacts and to limit encroachment into the city's 100‑ft upland review area to less than one acre; he also described mitigation plans including invasive woody removal, native shrub and herbaceous plantings and a conservation easement of roughly 30 acres along the eastern side to protect high‑functioning wetland and upland habitat.

Bernardin said a purchase‑and‑sale agreement contemplates a tax incentive or fixed assessment agreement, and she estimated that buildings of this type are typically assessed in excess of $150 million and generate significant local tax revenue. She stated construction would create a temporary workforce (presented as about 300 construction jobs) and estimated permanent onsite positions in the presentation materials (the transcript records the figure as "about 500 to a th000").

Blue Water asked the public to bring questions to the scheduled wetland hearings and said additional design items — including lighting and signage — will be finalized in later zoning or design submissions.

The presentation concluded by directing attendees to municipal filing portals and upcoming public hearings for detailed reports, including the wetland delineation, wetland assessment and stormwater management reports that Blue Water said are available for review.