There is one more step to go before a record-setting sixth Costco opens in a city in the Bay Area, and not everyone is happy about it.
The San José Planning Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve an environmental impact report for the planned warehouse site, according to the San José Spotlight. This means that the city council can think about approving it on October 22.
Prospect High School has more than 1,600 students and staff, according to the school’s website, and the planned site is right next to it. The Spotlight claimed that people who live nearby are against the warehouse because it will cause more traffic and noise.
“We’ve seen Costcos make a lot of improvements to public infrastructure around them because of problems they will cause,” Marc Pawliger, co-founder of the grassroots group Save West Valley, told the San José Spotlight. “We haven’t seen San Jose talk about doing anything similar.” “There doesn’t seem to be much of an effort between Costco and the city to get any kind of mitigations or improvements.”
“The location is inappropriate,” reportedly said Julie Reynolds, head of the Parent Teacher Student Association at the high school. “It’s less than 50 feet from long-established homes, close to several parks, across from assisted living centers and 1,000 feet from a high school.”
FOX Business asked city officials for comment, but they didn’t respond right away. However, Planning Commissioner Pierluigi Oliverio has previously said he supports the project, which the San José Spotlight says will create 250 to 300 jobs and bring in $2 million a year in tax revenue.
“When we have a chance where there is a commercial development that brings revenue to the city, we must approve,” he added. “At the end of the day, there’s a tsunami of general plan and city needs for economic development that this must happen.”
FOX Business asked Costco for a comment about the spot that the Spotlight says will cost about $60 million to build. They did not reply right away.
SFGATE says that if the planning goes through, San Jose will have the most Costcos of any city in the U.S.
Costco told the Spotlight that this store would be the first in the U.S. to have parking on the roof.
A local news source said that the 165,000-square-foot warehouse would go where a Goodwill store, the Ethan Allen Furniture Company, Bikram Yoga San Jose, and the old Smart & Final and Orchard Supply Hardware building are now. Those would all be torn down to make room for Costco.