Fresno Costco plans blocked last year return. Has city addressed project’s legal issues?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge halted Fresno Costco project in 2025 over zoning and environmental review.
- Fresno councilman says he’s confident revised plans address court’s findings.
- The new environmental report says emissions rise but would not conflict with state goals.
The plans to build Fresno’s largest Costco — blocked last year by a judge over zoning and environmental analysis problems — is back and set for another round of approvals by the city.
The project would relocate the Costco on Shaw Avenue to the intersection of Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive, diagonally across the street from the Marketplace at El Paseo shopping center. The new northwest Fresno store would be much larger at 219,000 square feet and would also include a car wash and a 32-pump gas station.
Costco has touted the planned new store as a $98 million investment with the potential to generate $55 million annually in economic benefit for the area.
But the city faced a lawsuit from the Herndon-Riverside Coalition for Responsible Planning and Development shortly after approving the Costco plans in 2024. The community group argued the area’s zoning does not allow a distribution center included in the project and that its environmental impact report was inadequate. Last summer, Fresno County Judge Jonathan Skiles agreed and halted the project.
Northwest Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi said he is confident the project’s newly revised planning documents address the problems found in Skiles’ ruling.
“We have a path forward to have something that’s environmentally friendly and complies with the law,” Karbassi told The Fresno Bee.
Daniel Brannick, an environmental attorney representing the coalition that sued the city, appears to disagree. He did not respond to a phone call requesting an interview Wednesday, but a letter he sent to the city in January says the project still has not addressed the “zoning inconsistency” of its distribution center. His letter also says the project’s analysis of greenhouse gas emissions “remains informationally inadequate.”
The Fresno Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the revised plans Wednesday evening. If given the OK, the plans would then head to the City Council again.
Do new Fresno Costco plans address problems found in lawsuit?
The northwest Fresno Costco plans include a 47,000-square foot “market delivery option” space, which court documents describe as a distribution center for large items.
Brannick argued in the lawsuit that the distribution space is considered an industrial use under Fresno’s Municipal Code and was not authorized in the commercially-zoned project area. The city had argued the distribution space would be integrated into the main Costco warehouse and would be legal within the area’s zoning as one part of a retail operation.
But Skiles wrote in his opinion that the city provided no evidence that the distribution space would be an “accessory use” as defined by Fresno law. In its revised planning documents, the city says the distribution space would function “like the storage element of a typical home improvement or furniture store.”
“As is evident to anyone who has visited or shopped at a large-format retailer or grocery store, modern retail uses incorporate both opportunities for in-person shopping and delivery to customers,” the documents say.
Skiles also struck down the project’s environmental impact report in his ruling because it was based, in part, on the city’s defunct 2021 greenhouse gas reduction plan. The new environmental report cites the city’s 2014 greenhouse gas reduction plan, among other regulations it says the project will abide by.
The report says the project will result in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, but adds that it “would not conflict with or impede” the state’s ability to reach its pollution reduction goals.
