As if Oceanside’s intersection traffic congestion is not bad enough it is about to take a brutal turn into grid lock. The Planning Commission just approved Amazon building a 150,000 square
foot distribution warehouse that will generate 35,700 DAILY truck trips. If you live or travel along Oceanside Blvd, Rancho Del Oro, College or El Camino Real you will feel what Amazon’s same day delivery really means. It means more traffic, more pollution and more potholes.
Didn’t hear about this until now? Yeah, the city’s and Amazon’s idea of community outreach was to notify just the 1500 people living within 1500 feet of the warehouse. As if the rest of Oceanside would not notice the massive number of Amazon trucks once this warehouse begins 24 hour, 7 days a week operations.
You would think such a huge facility would mean a lot more Oceanside tax revenues from Amazon. Nope! This is a warehouse so Oceanside receives no big increase in tax revenues. Amazon does promise adding 500 new jobs with about 250 in the warehouse and the rest as drivers. BUT, there is no commitment that these jobs will be filled by Oceanside citizens. Nor is there a commitment on how long these jobs will last as Amazon invests heavily into automation and artificial intelligence. Finally, why a warehouse when this Ocean Ranch land is prime land that is perfect for a tech company that could recruit the great students graduating form Mira Costa Community College?
And this massive warehouse is within a mile of Ivy Ranch Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School, El Camino High School plus a pre-school and retirement community. There is no safety plan for protecting our kids and seniors from increased traffic risks. Nor is there any type of commitment by the city or Amazon to protect our kids and seniors from truck air pollution.

In terms of pollution, Amazon will put solar on the warehouse’s roof and install some onsite electric vehicle charging units to comply with state rules. Unfortunately, there is ZERO Amazon
commitment to having an all electric truck fleet operating out of their Oceanside warehouse that would tie into their national claims of buying 100,000 electric trucks.
I have lived in Oceanside for 50 years, including owning an Oceanside home for 30 years. I have never intervened in any project before. But inserting an Amazon warehouse in a residential area is just wrong and too much. So I reached out to my neighbors and we signed a petition to stop this Amazon disaster. It was filed successfully with the city clerk’s office (by the way they were very helpful and nice people).
We are not against Amazon. We are in favor of attracting businesses to Oceanside. But why put a warehouse in the middle of a residential neighborhood? If the city thinks we need this warehouse then why not put it where it would be less harmful to people? And if the city does put it in a less impactful location then the city should have a plan for mitigating negative impacts like more traffic congestion, increased numbers of potholes and growing air/noise and lighting pollution that includes specific performance measurements that can be audited.
With the filing of this petition, some of us will be asking to meet with City Council Members Peter Weiss (this warehouse is in his district), Ryan Keim (his RDO/Mira Costa district will be heavily impacted by this warehouse), Chris Rodriquez and Kori Jensen. We have just met with Mayor Sanchez. Her feedback was that she has real issues with this Amazon proposal because of its location so close to residential communities and schools.
So let’s see if the city council will listen to their constituents or if what is being said about Oceanside government is true…that developers really run this town. I will keep you posted on
when the Oceanside City Council meets to vote on this Amazon warehouse so we can all see how Sanchez, Weiss, Keim, Rodriquez and Jensen vote.
Jeanne Leeper
Oceanside California