Amazon Pulls Its Westborough Drone Plan, but Only Without Prejudice

The Amazon Westborough drone plan is off, at least for now. In a letter dated 30 October 2026, Amazon asked the Westborough Planning Board to let it withdraw, “without prejudice”, its site plan application for a drone launch site at its Otis Street fulfillment center, the State House News Service reported. Amazon said it “looks forward to continuing to work with Town officials on next steps”.

That makes Westborough the first Massachusetts town where Amazon has backed away from a Prime Air hub after open local resistance. It is not a ban, and it is not the end of Amazon drone delivery in Massachusetts. It is a retreat from one application, and the wording leaves the door open.

What Amazon actually withdrew

The application was for a launch and landing site in the parking lot at 64 Otis Street, about 6,800 square feet, from which MK30 drones would carry packages under 5 pounds within roughly 7.5 miles. Amazon had talked of up to 1,000 deliveries a day over time. The plan needed site plan approval from the Planning Board, whose hearing Amazon itself had pushed from 6 October to 10 November.

State Representative Hannah Kane said the letter reached the town clerk and local lawmakers on the evening of Friday, 30 October. Kane, Representative Kate Donaghue and Senator Michael Moore said Amazon phoned them that evening, and that they were “extremely pleased”. The Community Advocate notes the application had been heading for a possible Zoning Board of Appeals vote on 2 November, on the residents’ appeal.

How Westborough got here

The Amazon Westborough drone hub started with a fast timeline: Amazon said in September that it hoped to start flying by the end of October. The town moved faster. On 1 October the Select Board voted unanimously to oppose the hub. Residents organised as Mass Blue Skies and appealed the building commissioner’s finding that a drone pad is an ordinary accessory use of a warehouse. On 19 October town meeting voted 510 to 13 for a bylaw banning commercial drone pads, which still needs the attorney general’s review.

The state then added its own hurdle. On 22 October MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division told Amazon it cannot open a takeoff and landing area anywhere in Massachusetts without a state certificate, that it had received no request, and that at least one public hearing would come first. Sixteen state legislators had already asked Governor Maura Healey for a drone delivery task force and a pause on such certificates. We followed each step in our Amazon drone hub fights tracker.

Why “without prejudice” matters

For the Amazon Westborough drone application, withdrawing without prejudice keeps Amazon free to file again. Massachusetts zoning law has a repetitive-petition rule: once certain applications are “unfavorably and finally acted upon”, the same request generally cannot be approved for two years unless conditions change materially (G.L. c.40A, s.16). The same section lets an applicant withdraw without prejudice, with the board’s approval once a hearing has been noticed. Whether that two-year bar would have reached a site plan review is a question for the local bylaw, but by pulling out before any vote Amazon avoids a recorded denial altogether.

Nothing in the letter suggests a timeline for that. Amazon has not said whether it is looking at another Massachusetts site, and none of the reports names one.

Why Massachusetts was harder than Illinois

The contrast with Chicago is sharp. Amazon has quietly started flying from its Markham warehouse in Chicago’s south suburbs, where an Illinois statute limits what towns can do about aircraft and neighbouring Homewood has said it cannot restrict the flights. Our Amazon drone delivery Chicago guide covers that case.

In both places the FAA controls the airspace, the routes and the flights. What differs is the ground. Massachusetts asks for a state landing-area certificate and leaves towns real site plan and zoning tools; Illinois leaves towns very little. Amazon drone delivery in Massachusetts now depends on the state certificate route more than on any single town vote.

What it means for the other hub fights

Westborough is the second clear setback in October after North Myrtle Beach’s Planning Commission denied Amazon’s pad 6–0 on 20 October. Portland has started the legal steps toward a drone hub moratorium, and Amazon cancelled its planning meeting there. In North Haven, Connecticut, the state’s coastal ruling is due by mid-November.

None of this slows Amazon where it already has a site, and the company is still working toward its 500-city Prime Air goal. The lesson of the Amazon Westborough drone retreat is narrower: where a state gives towns and its own aviation office a say over the pad, organised opposition can stop a plan before the first flight.

What to watch next

Three things will decide whether the Amazon Westborough drone plan comes back. First, whether the Planning Board formally accepts the withdrawal, and what happens to the 10 November hearing and the residents’ appeal. Second, the attorney general’s review of the 510–13 pad ban, which would apply to any future application. Third, whether Amazon files for a MassDOT Aeronautics certificate anywhere in the state, which would show where it tries next. We will add each to this post and to the tracker.