Foster City Costco expansion triggering traffic concerns

The council’s concerns center on the location of the proposed gas station at the northeast section of the site adjacent to Metro Center Boulevard and the State Route 92 off-ramp. They say there is insufficient queue area on the lot and the line of cars waiting to fill up will extend onto the street and further clog State Route 92.

“Costco is our biggest tax generator and we don’t want to lose them but we can’t have our streets jammed up,” Bronitsky said.

Other than the traffic impacts of the gas station, the council appeared open to the project, in which the existing 120,338-square-foot warehouse at 1001 Metro Center Blvd. would be demolished and a new 153,452-square-foot one sitting above ground-level parking would be constructed on the opposite end of the site.

If approved, Bronitsky said the warehouse would be closed for one to two years before the new one would be ready to open, and Councilman Herb Perez claimed the entire process including the environmental review would last as long as three years.

The project would provide 825 parking stalls — there are currently 663 — and a tire facility below the raised-podium store. There will be new landscaping on the perimeter of the parking lot, and a series of escalators that could accommodate carts, an elevator and stairs would connect the lot to the store.

Kim Katz, Costco’s director of real estate development, said gas is the most common request from members, and expanding the warehouse to the company standard of about 150,000 square feet would allow it to offer products that currently are not offered at the Foster City location.

“Typically, our SKU count is 4,300 and we’re about in the 3,000 or less range at this warehouse,” she said, referring to stock keeping units, or the bar codes on individual products.

The eight-lane gas station would feature 16 pumps and 32 fueling positions and, while cheap gas is always a hit, the council made it clear they wouldn’t approve the proposed layout.

Perez said drivers outside the city would start lining up for Costco gas, and added that some traffic impacts would be inevitable regardless of the layout. The expansion would bring increased sales tax revenue, but Perez also suggested that benefit might not be worth the potential gridlock.

The meeting was a preliminary review of the project, which will likely be modified before it’s resubmitted to the city and reviewed by the Planning Commission. Mayor Sam Hindi recused himself from the discussion as he owns a gas station.

“We appreciate it that Costco’s here and we look forward to a solution that works for us all in the long term because we’d like you to be here for the long term,” Bronitsky said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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