Supporters and critics of Amazon filled a public hearing on a proposal for Arlington County to grant the online retailer $23 million in incentives. The package passed unanimously despite loud opposition from activists.

Ally Schweitzer / WAMU

Over chants and hisses of disapproval from activists, the Arlington County Board voted unanimously Saturday evening to approve an estimated $23 million incentives package for Amazon.

The vote represents the final hurdle in the online retailer’s plan to open a campus in Crystal City. Amazon is now poised to begin hiring as many as 400 workers in Arlington this year. The county’s incentives—which are drawn from projected hotel tax revenue—will be contingent upon Amazon occupying at least 6 million square feet in commercial space over time.

But the road to Saturday’s vote has been bumpy, with county board members facing recurring confrontations with activists who say Amazon will launch a tidal wave of gentrification that displaces working people of color. Tensions played out in dramatic fashion multiple times over the course of the meeting, with board members vacating the dais as protesters shouted them down.

Much of the rancor unfolded after Amazon executives Andrea Fava, Holly Sullivan, and Brian Huseman appeared in the boardroom to take questions from elected officials after hours of public testimony.

The executives’ appearance at the meeting had not been disclosed in advance by the county or Amazon. When activist Angela Peoples interrupted the proceedings to ask if community members could ask questions, Chairman Christian Dorsey said no, because the public hearing had already ended. That prompted D.C. anti-development activist Chris Otten to shout, “Wrong!”

Dorsey quickly declared a 10-minute recess and board members vacated the room alongside Amazon executives. While board members returned about 15 minutes later, Amazon representatives did not.

Otten was later detained by police after shouting obscenities at meeting attendees.

Warning: The following video contains explicit language.

But the interruptions were brief compared to the several hours of public testimony board members heard throughout the afternoon, as residents, business owners, real-estate professionals, laborers, organizers, and civic leaders stepped to the microphone to share vastly divergent views on Amazon’s potential impact on the region. More than 100 people signed up to testify, with Amazon critics and supporters in roughly equal measure.

Representatives from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership and the Greater Washington Board of Trade were among the package’s boosters, describing it as a good deal for Arlington that will deliver economic growth above and beyond the county’s estimated $23 million investment.

Stratis Voutsas, a landlord who oversees multiple commercial properties on Crystal City’s South 23rd Street, said Amazon will help independent businesses bounce back from the loss of thousands of federal jobs in Arlington under Base Realignment and Closure.

“We really suffered with the BRAC closure, and we never recovered,” Voutsas said. “We want to preserve 23rd Street, and we see the arrival of Amazon as an opportunity.”

But Voutsas and other supporters were countered by speakers who excoriated county board members for offering public dollars to Amazon, a vastly wealthy corporation that has attracted criticism for not paying federal taxes and hosting technology used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Should you choose to accept Amazon,” testified Ibby Han, a self-identified Arlington native, “you’re simply reinforcing Virginia’s history of prioritizing the business elite over working-class people.”

Members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters testified in favor of a project labor agreement with Amazon and developer JBG Smith.Ally Schweitzer / WAMU

Earlier in the day, activists, laborers and representatives from the Crystal City Business Improvement District gathered outside the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center, bearing signs with competing messages. Some declared “Virginia is for Amazon,” while others said “Affordable Housing 1st—Not Amazon.”

Members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters turned out to testify in favor of a project labor agreement for Amazon and developer JBG Smith, the company that owns most commercial real estate in Crystal City, including property expected to be leased to Amazon.

Union spokesperson Greg Akerman says he’s concerned JBG Smith and Amazon will hire companies like Power Design, an electrical contractor D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sued last year, alleging the company had misclassified workers as independent contractors to skirt leave and minimum-wage laws.

“We’re incredibly concerned that if the deal goes through as-is, without any kind of protections for workers, without any kind of project labor agreement … that the same wage theft is going to persist,” Akerman said.

In an exchange with board members later in the day, Amazon’s worldwide head of economic development, Holly Sullivan, said the corporation has been talking with trades representatives about a labor agreement, but she did not offer specifics.

In their final comments before the vote, board members indicated there’s still more negotiation to do as Amazon begins to transition into the county. Agreements over the company’s financial contributions to affordable housing, hiring of union workers and use of renewable energy can be hashed out during the site-planning process, they said.

At the same time, all agreed that a vote against Amazon would do nothing to solve the county’s longstanding problems with affordable housing and gentrification-related displacement.

“I would say nearly every vote we take from the dais falls short of my overall aspirations for transforming our national economy. [But] that’s not a standard to which I can hold my decisions,” said board member Katie Cristol, who addressed the room by phone. “The standard is whether our community will benefit, on balance, if I vote yes. And for me, on this performance agreement, the answer is an overwhelming yes.”

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