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FILE: A view of a Costco store on December 12, 2019 in Novato, California.<\/p>\n
Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Following a two-year legal battle, the Fresno City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve a new Costco that would be the biggest in the state.<\/p>\n
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The path now appears to be clear\u00a0for the mega-Costco to finally break ground \u2014 or for more lawsuits to be filed \u2014 or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The new store was originally slated to eclipse all others before it with plans for more than 240,000 square feet of retail warehouse space. The Salt Lake City Costco currently holds the record<\/a> at 235,000 square feet.<\/p>\n But those designs were scaled back after feedback from the community. The new Costco is still a massive one and is slated to feature a 219,000-square-foot warehouse which includes a 47,000-square-foot component called a market delivery option<\/a> which enables large items, like TVs or refrigerators, to be loaded into trucks for nearby home delivery. The footprint also includes a car wash, charging stations and a 32-pump gas station along with a parking area.<\/p>\n A view of the empty\u00a0lot the new store will take over in Fresno.<\/p>\n Google Street View<\/p>\n The Fresno City Council initially approved\u00a0the plan in\u00a0April 2024, granting Costco the ability to build the new store on a 22.4-acre site<\/a> in northwest Fresno on the corner of Northwest Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive.\u00a0Construction was originally slated to begin that fall and finish by the end of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The giant new Costco was pitched by the company to replace the existing north Fresno Costco on West Shaw which was built in 1985. Costco officials at Thursday\u2019s meeting confirmed that that location was the retail giant’s first location in California.<\/p>\n However, in July 2025, Judge Jonathan Skiles ruled that the project couldn\u2019t go forward until the city came into compliance with climate change and zoning regulations. \u00a0<\/p>\n As a result of the ruling, in November 2025, the project’s environmental impact report was decertified by the city council and the development plans were put on hold, city staff said at the meeting. Eventually, another environmental impact report was submitted and the plans were slated to move forward pending Thursday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Close up view of Costco Gasoline packed with vehicles in Irvine Calif., Feb. 20, 2022.<\/p>\n Fang Zheng\/Getty Images<\/p>\n At Thursday’s meeting, Fresno resident Daniel Brannick, an attorney and a spokesperson for the Herndon-Riverside Coalition for Responsible Planning and Development, the entity that brought forth the 2024 lawsuit, expressed his discomfort at the city\u2019s lack of action in the wake of the ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here today because we won a trial in court,\u201d he said Thursday during public comment. \u201cAnd the city had to decertify the EIR and rescind the project approvals that had been presented in 2024 before recirculating to get here. We said there was an opportunity to fix faulty work and we meant that. The city has apparently decided to squander that opportunity. They said they\u2019d fix things. They have not. They\u2019ve led to the same flawed conclusions regarding zoning and CEQA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Brannick said the city did nothing to change from the original documentation, \u201cliterally moving papers around\u201d and alleged that the building looks to be more like a distribution center than a retail center which is against the city zoning regulations for that parcel. He called the city’s environmental review finding’s “fundamentally incompatible and defy all logic and reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Brannick vowed to sue again if the council voted approved the project Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t oppose Costco,\u201d he concluded, \u201cand we\u2019re not running a popularity contest. What we oppose is not calling things what they are and not following the law. If you approve the project today, we\u2019re going to be back in court.\u201d<\/p>\n The line grows for a chance to meet Guy Fieri inside the San Luis Obispo, Calif. Costco on March 6, 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew Pridgen\/SFGATE<\/p>\n Brannick’s group had asked that Councilmember Mike Karbassi recuse himself from this week’s vote due to statements he made in an interview last year as well at last week\u2019s city budget meeting. But Karbassi declined to do so and instead gave vocal support of the project and in his closing comments seemed to address Brannick directly.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Stay informed, and entertained.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to state, we are having this meeting today, I don\u2019t see pitchforks. I don\u2019t see my residents here protesting. Where\u2019s the coalition?,\u201d he asked rhetorically. \u201cI see one person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n SFGATE reporters Amanda Bartlett and Madeline Wells contributed to this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n More Central California News<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE: A view of a Costco store on December 12, 2019 in Novato, California. 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