What’s the problem with Fresno’s northwest Costco push? More litigation expected
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fresno City Council will consider northwest Costco project on Thursday.
- Challengers say the distribution space is an industrial operation violates zoning law.
- More litigation is likely for the project if it’s approved as proposed.
A massive Costco proposed for construction at Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive would be like none other in the Fresno area.
It would be the largest Costco in town and among the largest in the world. Its 219,000-square-foot main building would come with 24 truck bays along the outside and a 47,000-square-foot “market delivery option” — a distribution center-type space from where large items would be loaded onto box trucks and delivered to Costco members.
That distribution space is a main reason the project’s legal opponent, a community group that successfully blocked the Costco plans in court last year, is likely to reignite litigation against the city. The group’s environmental lawyer, Daniel Brannick, describes it as an industrial operation that, if allowed on a commercially zoned site without an amendment to local law, would set a “problematic precedent” in Fresno.
“We’re going to be back in court, whether it’s a whole new complaint or whether it’s, ‘Hey, the city hasn’t complied with the existing judgment,’” said Brannick, who represents the Herndon-Riverside Coalition for Responsible Planning and Development.
The coalition sued the city shortly after it first approved the project in 2024. Last year, Fresno County Judge Jonathan Skiles ruled the project’s environmental analysis was inadequate because it was based on a 2021 pollution-reduction plan that had itself been thrown out in a separate court case, and that the city had also failed to prove that its own laws allow the distribution space.
The analysis now cites a 2014 pollution-reduction plan instead, which the city says is just one on a list of environmental standards the project will adhere to. Planning documents also now include a section that cites Fresno’s Municipal Code to justify the project’s distribution space. Brannick says neither move is likely to satisfy the court ruling.
Fresno’s City Council is scheduled to again consider the project on Thursday. Some officials are eager to re-approve the project, calling it a crucial investment that could leave Fresno if delays continue. They expect the new Costco, a $98 million project that would replace the aging store on Shaw Avenue, to generate millions in local tax dollars each year.
Though the Herndon-Riverside Coalition has been accused of trying to kill a growth project, Brannick said the city’s response to his group’s lawsuit serves as another example of the city “working for who is at the development counter” rather than concerned residents.
In a statement to The Fresno Bee, the city said: “By definition, the role of the counter is to process applications submitted to the City by who is at the development counter or online.”
Why doesn’t Fresno amend city zoning law to allow distribution center?
The city describes the proposed northwest Fresno Costco as a “large format retailer” — a category that includes warehouse clubs and other large stores. Fresno law says these stores are allowed to have “integrated delivery services,” which the city has previously approved for Walmart in a commercial zone.
Even if it weren’t considered an integrated part of the store, city law would allow the distribution space as an accessory use to the retail warehouse because it is associated with the store’s primary function, city documents say.
“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 city says in a planning document.
But to Brannick, Fresno’s Municipal Code simply does not allow the type of distribution space proposed in the Costco project — one with two dozen truck bays, which he said is far more than any big box store on Shaw Avenue has.
“You see two dozen truck bays on warehousing and fulfillment projects,” he said. “You don’t see them on commercial retail projects.”
Brannick said the Costco proposal could abide by the city’s current zoning law if its distribution space is removed or if the project site is rezoned to light industrial. Or, he added, the city could amend its zoning law to allow the distribution space with additional permitting.
“But that would need to go through a legislative process,” Brannick said.
The city said it has not pursued a code amendment because it is processing the application it has received.
“The City has not received an application to modify the municipal code,” the city said.
Would new Fresno Costco proposal set a ‘problematic precedent’?
To Brannick, approving the Costco with the distribution space but no rezones or code amendments would allow city departments to push through potentially harmful projects proposed by developers and industrial landowners in the future without a public process.
“The way they’re saying it’s an accessory use, it would be something that could happen as an administrative approval,” Brannick said. “It’s just a director sign-off.”
He said that means some projects would be pushed through without reviews based on the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, and without public hearings.
In its planning documents, the city called Brannick’s claims “entirely speculative.”
“Nothing in the City’s determination implies that a standalone MDO (distribution space) would be allowed in a commercial zone,” the documents say.
The city added in its statement to The Bee that any use “called out as administrative must comply with CEQA during the processing of a specific project.”
