Amazon Pulled Its Westborough Drone Plan. Read the Two Words That Matter: 'Without Prejudice'

Amazon asked Westborough's Planning Board on Oct. 30 to let it withdraw its application for a Prime Air drone launch site at its Otis Street warehouse. That's a win for the residents who fought it. But the letter says "without prejudice," and Amazon told reporters it plans to come back with a revised project.

Here's what stacked up against it. Residents appealed the town's ruling that a drone pad counts as a normal part of a warehouse, with a zoning appeals hearing set for Nov. 2. On Oct. 19, a Special Town Meeting voted 510-13 for a bylaw banning commercial drone launch pads and landing zones. Sixteen legislators from both parties asked Gov. Maura Healey to freeze drone-delivery certificates. And MassDOT's Aeronautics Division told Amazon no takeoff and landing area can open in Massachusetts without a state certificate, which Amazon hadn't applied for.

Sen. Michael Moore and Reps. Hannah Kane and Kate Donaghue said they were "extremely pleased," crediting residents' concerns about noise, safety and privacy.

Nobody stopped Amazon in court or at the FAA. A town and a state agency just made it slow and expensive. That's a playbook other towns will copy.

What we still don't know: whether Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell approves Westborough's bylaw, whether Amazon refiles somewhere else in Massachusetts, and whether the Legislature writes statewide rules or leaves every town to fight on its own.