Big new Costco store proposed for northwest Fresno already drawing some concerns
Costco wants to open a big new store in northwest Fresno, at Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive, but the plan is already drawing concerns from one City Council member.
The site the company’s eyeing is catty corner from the Marketplace at El Paseo, on 22.4 acres of empty land on the northeast corner of the intersection. Costco is proposing to build a 169,000-square-foot store, according to preliminary documents filed with the city.
It would have 987 parking stalls, along with a tire center, a gas station and a drive-thru car wash.
The project is very early in the planning stages and no permit applications have yet been filed with the city, according to Sontaya Rose, the city’s director of communications.
It’s not confirmed yet if Costco is planning to move its existing West Shaw Avenue store to the new site. But the company made a similar move a few years ago when it replaced an aging Costco in Clovis with a newly constructed store on Clovis Avenue.
One Fresno City Councilmember, Mike Karbassi, is concerned about Costco’s proposal in Fresno.
“They’re asking for something that I can’t support right off the bat,” he said. “I’m totally open to them moving to a bigger location, but we’re going to have to find something that’s more appropriate.”
Such a move would leave another large empty store on Shaw, he noted, not far from the building that Walmart moved out of in 2018 that’s still empty.
According to preliminary documents filed with the city planning department, the project developer would request conditional-use permits for large format retail sales and alcohol sales.
The main entry and exit to the store would be on Riverside Drive. But the documents also say the developer plans to request a general plan amendment to reclassify part of Herndon Avenue from an expressway to a “superarterial”.
Because Herndon is an expressway, it has a higher speed limit and limited entrances and exits to businesses, with most drivers being diverted to side streets before entering large parking lots. Changing that could allow the retailer to put an entrance on Herndon, an idea that Karbassi doesn’t like.
“We don’t do that for anybody because Herndon is an expressway,” he said
Using just Riverside could lead to traffic issues for people in the area, he said.
“If I was a resident there or I used the municipal golf course there … I’d be a little concerned about the traffic.”
Costco declined to comment on its plans or timeline, with a manager at the West Shaw Avenue store saying they don’t comment on new stores that are more than three months away from opening.
A call to Costco’s corporate headquarters was not returned.
Costco’s plans would need approval from the planning commission and the City Council. It could be a while before plans progress that far, Karbassi noted.
West Shaw Costco
Despite his opposition, Karbassi said he understands the desire for a change.
“I get why they want to move because of the traffic issues and the parking issues,” he said of the West Shaw store.
That area of Shaw Avenue gets busy. And that Costco has a busy parking lot that’s connected to another popular retailer, Winco.
In 2019, the Costco parking lot was the site of a road rage incident that spilled over from a nearby street, with one person allegedly striking a woman with a car.
New Costco stores
Two years ago, Costco built a new store in Clovis. It closed the aging store on Ashlan Avenue and moved into a larger, newly constructed store on Clovis Avenue near Shaw Avenue in summer of 2019.
That store has all the regular departments, including a tire center, bakery, pharmacy, hearing aid-center, a deli, an electronics department, and furniture. It also added six self-checkout registers at the food court, while retaining one regular cash register.
Costco also opened a newly constructed store in Hanford in 2016.
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 3:40 PM.
