What happened?
Humble Mayor Norman Funderburk issued a local disaster declaration Dec. 9 following multiple resident complaints regarding the influx of Amazon semitruck traffic along Rankin Road from the PortNorth 59 Industrial Park, which began operations Nov. 19.
“Through it all, I've been more than disappointed, shocked and angry even, by the apparent lack of regard, the lack of consideration shown for us, the city, our residents and our commuters,” Funderburk said during the Dec. 12 council meeting. “Much of that has been from the [semitruck] drivers, but yet, still unacceptable, and I want to make it clear, we the city, had no idea this was about to happen.”
City Manager Jason Stuebe also said the certificate of occupancy for the PortNorth 59 Industrial Park was revoked, and business operations have been shut down by the city until a solution for the traffic issue can be reached by industrial park owner Phelan Development and Amazon.
“The revocation of the CO for the building at this point is indefinite until they come up with a solution that is amenable to all parties and is approved by the city,” Stuebe said. “There is no silver bullet solution. ... We're going to have to make modifications to that intersection. We may have to make modifications to that entire roadway. It may not be fiscally feasible for the developer to take on those costs because we've made it a bedrock policy that development pays for itself.”
Stuebe said the traffic impact analysis, which was submitted to the city before Amazon began operations, showed that Amazon projected an increase of around 30 semitrucks daily along Rankin Road—a number which Stuebe said was grossly underrepresented to the city.
The impact
Arquila Newman, a resident of the Timberwood subdivision near the PortNorth 59 Industrial Park, was one of several residents who spoke during the Dec. 12 council meeting regarding the safety concerns from the semitruck traffic, which has affected residents along Rankin Road.
“People are almost being hit, the streets are being blocked off; the truckers even said, ‘We're going to keep blocking the street.’ They literally told us that,” Newman said. “What do we do from here? What do we do 30 days from here?”
Rosa Castillo, another resident of the Timberwood subdivision, likewise shared safety concerns during the Dec. 12 council meeting.
"My son is about to get his driver license, and now it's a nightmare for me," Castillo said. "He was supposed to be starting off [on these] streets to get experience before he got on the freeway to deal with all that traffic, and now it's right outside of the doors."
What's being done
Justin Bennett, a partner at Phelan Development, expressed a similar dissatisfaction with Amazon’s distribution system.
“We take this extremely seriously, just as the city, as a steward of public health and safety, we recognize that it is our obligation to uphold that as well,” Bennett said during the Dec. 12 meeting. “Both my team and the [Amazon] team are working daily to come up with a solution that's going to be amenable to the city and, mostly, amenable to the citizens, such that the dangerous situation that existed with the mass amount of trucks that were dispatched to the building will not occur again.”
