PORT ST. LUCIE — The Planning & Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval July 7 of the third amendment to the Legacy Park North at Southern Grove Master Planned Unit Development, allowing Costco to include outdoor storage as part of its planned 170,000-square-foot warehouse store in the Southern Grove mixed-use commercial area.
Deputy Planning & Zoning Director Bridget Kean introduced the company’s request that evening.
“This is the third amendment to the Legacy Park North at Southern Grove MPUD,” she said. “Legacy Park North MPUD is the zoning district for 355 acres of property between Marshall Parkway and Hegener Drive, west of I-95 and east of Village Parkway. The applicant is Costco Wholesale Corporation, and the property owners are Costco Wholesale Corporation, the Port St. Lucie Governmental Finance Corporation and the Tradition Entertainment District II LLC. The PUD is divided into two areas: a business park area off of Sansone Boulevard and a mixed commercial area off Southwest Village Parkway.”
Kean emphasized that the amendment was primarily needed for the 23 acres currently subject to a purchase and sale agreement between the GFC and Costco Wholesale Corporation.
“This amendment is really just to add a new use to the mixed commercial area,” she explained. “That use is to address the member-based wholesale warehouse retail store that’s 100,000 square feet or greater and then the various uses that would be located in the store, as well as the ability for some outside storage. There’s also going to be tire-changing and repair within the facility. Additional changes are to add a maximum 40-foot allowable mounting height for outdoor lighting fixtures [and] a minor change to the requirements for parking standards.”
As far as the latter, Kean pointed out that Costco prefers slightly wider and longer parking stalls than those mandated by city code.
“The city’s standard [is] a 9.5 width and a depth of 18 feet,” she added. “They prefer a 10-feet wide parking stall and 20-foot depth. The amendment does add an additional retail use to the MPUD for a membership-based box retail warehouse club to allow for specific uses that distinguish it from traditional retail. We’ve reviewed this for consistency with the city code, as well as for consistency with the Southern Grove Development of Regional Impact.”
Board Member Peter Previte immediately asked for clarification since he knew the city had already approved similar uses for both BJ’s Wholesale Club and Sam’s Club.
“Can you talk a little bit about why this is specific to the MPUD?” he asked.
In her response, Kean assured him that other areas of the city have already dealt with the same issues.
“It’s the same thing for the Lowe’s out in Southern Grove, [and] it’s for the areas where you have Home Depot in a Commercial General Zoning,” she explained. “It’s always been kind of a problem because they have uses like outdoor storage that technically isn’t permitted by code. Everything’s supposed to be indoors, so there were changes to where the BJ’s is going. That is a use in a PUD that provides for a BJ’s, Lowe’s in Southern Grove has specific language in that MPUD to accommodate what Lowe’s has, and that’s why we’re doing the same thing for the proposed Costco. Again, it’s not always consistent with code, so we try to address that with the PUDs.”
Board Member Previte also wanted more info on the Costco request for slightly larger parking stalls.
“The accommodation there is because that would have less spaces than what we might require?” he asked.
“No, it doesn’t change the amount of parking,” Kean said as she deferred further explanation to Costco Corp.’s contracted Land Planner Brad Wester who then came to the podium.
“As Bridget mentioned, this request for more parking space is vital to the continuity of the business for Costco itself,” he said. “We’re not asking for any waivers, deviations or what-not from the code itself. If you’ve ever been to a Costco, you know that the spaces are very accommodating for wider swing for the doors to get your packages in and out. It takes up more room, but roughly the sweet spot is 900 spaces for Costco, and we’re sitting right around that with this overall site plan.”
Wester immediately proceeded to Costco’s request to increase the light pole height in the mixed commercial area from 25 to 40 feet before any Board member had a chance to inquire about it.
“Costco has a very specific standard for lighting safety,” he explained. “When you reduce the height of the pole, you inherently need more poles. Increasing it up to 40 feet allows for less poles on the property. We have shown that we meet and exceed the lighting standard at the property edge all the way around, specifically along the edge closest to the Del Webb [residential] community.”
Previte concluded with a question that was on the minds of many Port St. Lucie residents.
“I think when this was approved, there was a projection of 365 days,” he said in reference to the estimated construction time on the new store. “Do you have any idea of when it might be?”
In response Wester reminded him of the parallel approval course Costco is seeking with both the city and the Tradition community.
“Essentially, if the PUD amendment is approved, the Tradition review comes through and the light plan and replat and everything else is approved, this will be shovel ready,” he replied. “We’re working very quickly to get this off the ground. As you know, Costco does this very, very well and very, very quickly. Our first and second reading of City Council are in July. We have an on-going call with staff to vet all of our site-planning and zoning needs through the Teams medium. I wish I could give you a date, but it will be clearly 2027.”
For his part, Board Member Joe Rosen requested confirmation on the lighting plan.
“Does the city have any concerns with the higher lighting affecting nearby residential?” he asked.
“That’s their standard lighting,” Kean replied. “We already have requirements that the light has to be shielded and can only focus down.”
Rosen subsequently turned his attention to the landscaping.
“Once done, are they required to maintain that?” he asked.
“Yes,” Kean answered. “Any commercial development is required to maintain their landscaping.”
The Planning & Zoning Board then voted unanimously to approve the amendment. At press time, the Port St. Lucie City Council was scheduled to hold the first reading on the same request during its July 13 afternoon meeting.