Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

It's 06:00 and it's the Planning Commission meeting for 05/06/2026. Could we do a a real roll call? Commissioner Lide. Commissioner Calandra. Commissioner Diaz. Here. Commissioner

Present.

Vice chair Bray. Here. We'll do the pledge of allegiance now. Stand. Ready, salute.

I'll read the procedures now. This meeting is being conducted in person and electronically. For each matter considered by the commission, there will first be a staff presentation, followed by a presentation from the project applicant. Testimony from supporters of the project will then be taken, followed by testimony from those in opposition. The applicant will have the right to a final rebuttal presentation prior to closing the public hearing.

In accordance with section 13 of article two of the planning commission rules and regulations governing the length of public debate, all public testimony from those in support and in opposition of the project will be limited to three minutes per person. The three lights on the podium next to the microphone will indicate the amount of time remaining for the speaker. The green light will be turned on when the speaker begins. The yellow light will come on with a soft bell ring when one minute is remaining. The speaker should be completing testimony by the time the red light comes on with a final bill indicating that the time has expired.

All in person public testimony must be presented to the commission at the podium. Any testimony that references race, religion, ethnicity, economic status, national origin, or other classification protected under state or federal law in a derogatory manner shall be deemed irrelevant and will not be considered by the commission in making its land use decisions. If you challenge these land use matters in court, you may limit it to only those issues that you or someone else raised in oral or written testimony or before the close of the hearing. So we'll start today's meeting with approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda?

Good evening, Vice Chair Bray. Commissioners, Philip Segres, Planning and Development Department. There are no changes to tonight's agenda.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have a change for the agenda? Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Second. The motion to approve was made by commissioner Calandra, seconded by commissioner Diaz.

Would the secretary please take oh, let's just do if you're in favor, signal aye. Aye. Okay. Opposed? We'll go to the consent calendar. We have the regular meeting minutes from January 28. Do you have any additions to that? And I have a second. Second. So if you're in favor of the approval, say aye.

Aye. Any nays? Are there any reports by commissioners? Our continued matters 8AID twenty six thousand five hundred forty one is continued to May 2026. And new matter 8AID 20 six-five 68 is also continued to 05/20/2026.

As is 8BID 20 six-five 69. So we'll go to new matter eight CID twenty six thousand four twenty seven. We have the staff report.

Good evening, planning commissioners, good evening city staff, and members of the public. My name

is Steven Martinez, planner three in the City of Fresno Current Planning Division. I will be giving a presentation on the Costco project which is comprised of the various entitlements listed there on the screen in addition to the related environmental impact report. Alright. So just to give a, overview of the timeline of this project, the project was originally filed for in 2021 with, an EIR prepared between 2021 and 2024. This project was previously heard by the planning commission in February 2024 with the project ultimately being approved by the city council in 2024.

Due to various circumstances, a, revised EIR commenced preparation of a or excuse me. A revised EIR, was, started in the 2025. And in 2000 excuse me, November 2025, the city council had taken action on their previous approvals. In starting on 11/21/2025 through January year, the partially recirculated draft environmental impact report was published for review, and the final EIR was prepared in early two thousand twenty six. And now in May 2026, we are back at planning commission and, going to the city council in a couple of weeks.

So again, just kind of give an overview of the project. The project is going to be located on the Northeast Corner Of West Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive. This project site is surrounded by single use single unit residential to the West, the Riverside Golf Course to the North, and marketplace at El Paseo, Southeast of the project location. The, project proposes the construction of a Costco commercial center with, an approximately 219,000 square foot Costco, retail building with market delivery operations. The market delivery element of the retail warehouse, will facilitate efficient delivery of big and bulky items, including but not limited to furniture, major appliances, patio furniture, televisions, fitness equipment, mattresses, and and even more.

And the the project also proposes a a 16 pump, 32 dispenser fuel station, a 4,800 square foot automated car wash facility, and then a whole whole lot of other on-site improvements necessary for the overall development and functioning of the project site. The project also proposes an abundance of off-site improvements, again, to make the project functionable and to comply with all development code requirements. The project also proposes a separate conditional use permit to establish a state of California alcohol alcoholic beverage control type 21 license. As part of the project, it does include both a rezone and a plan amendment. The project site is currently zoned as commercial community, and, the the proposed it is proposed to be rezoned to commercial general, and the rezone is necessary to allow for the development of the proposed car wash.

And with the rezone, the site can be developed through a conditional use permit, which is one of the other items being heard tonight. The project also proposes two plan amendments. One is to change the planned land use from commercial community to commercial general to match the zoning, and the other is to redesignate a portion of West Turndon Avenue from an expressway to a super arterial to allow for access, along Herndon Avenue. And, here, we just have a couple snips of the the layout for the proposed project. The main warehouse is proposed closer to Herndon Avenue with the proposed fueling station and car wash nearer to a Spruce Avenue extension that will be done as part of this project.

And then here we have just a couple of renderings of the elevations. This would be of the the main warehouse. As we can see, there's multiple, facade patterns and colors, which will enhance the aesthetics of the structure. And then we just have a couple of views of the fuel canopy along with the proposed car wash structure, which will match the style of the primary building. So as noted, an environmental impact report was prepared for the project.

Just a brief overview, an EIR is a document which provides an in-depth analysis of a project's potential impacts on the environment. And the document will also identify mitigation measures and alternatives to reduce the project's impacts. And in determining that an EIR was the appropriate environmental document, the listed environmental resource topics were analyzed in detail, and various technical and supplemental studies were conducted as part of the EIR. The EIR had originally determined that there was going to be four significant and unavoidable impacts, impacts that could not be mitigated to to less than significant or less than significant with incorporated mitigation, and it would be those four impacts that are listed there. First one is the generation of substantial temporary or, yeah, substantial temporary increase in construction noise levels in excess of applicable standards, conflict or inconsistency with CEQA section one five zero six four.

That's related to vehicle miles traveled. Substantially increased hazard due to, or increased hazards due to geometric design feature, sharp curves, so on so forth, incompatible uses, and

then

accumulative transportation impact. Impact. As mentioned, the project was previously approved by the Fresno City Council in April 2024. However, due to circumstances, the all project approvals were rescinded in November 2025. And a partially recirculated environmental impact report was prepared, and specifically only section 3.7 greenhouse gas emissions and climate change was revised.

And, there's two thresholds which were analyzed. Threshold one, the revised EIR evaluates the significance of the project's greenhouse gas emissions based on whether the project would conflict or impede the ability of the state to meet reduction goals, greenhouse gas reduction goals. Threshold two evaluates whether the project would conflict with applicable plans related to greenhouse gas emissions at state, regional, and local levels. And, this this, new qualitative approach is consistent with, a state supreme court ruling on, which had discussion excuse me, a discussion of options as how to evaluate a project's greenhouse gas, impacts. And for both thresholds, the analysis concluded that the project will have a less than significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, the revised EIR has the same significant and unavoidable impacts that were previously identified and that were already reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council back in 2024. And a SECRA requires the decision making agency to, balance as applicable the economic, legal, social, technological, and other benefits of a proposed project against its unavoidable environmental risk when determining, whether to approve the project. And a statement of overriding considerations was was approved, adopted back in 2024, and there is a revised one before the planning commission tonight, and that will go back before the city council. And it's attached as exhibit two e to the staff report. And furthermore, the Fresno Municipal Code findings, were revised, and they are attached to, the staff report as exhibit g.

So the appropriateness appropriateness of the project has been examined with respect to its compatibility with the existing and proposed uses in the area, cons goal, consistency with the goals and policies of the Fresno General Plan, Bullard, Community Plan, and Fresno County Airport airport land use compatibility plan. And these factors have been evaluated as described, and and by the accompanying environmental impact report, and staff concludes that the required findings contained with contained within Fresno Municipal Code sections, 15 dash fifty eight twelve, 15 dash fifty three zero six, and fifth 15 dash fifty nine zero five can be made, And therefore, and therefore, the excuse me. Staff asked the planning commission to recommend to the city council to, to approve, adopt, and certify the COSCO project and its associated environmental impact report. And that concludes my presentation, and I am open for questions. And if there's no questions at this time, the COSCO Project team also has a presentation they would like to share.

Are there any questions?

In terms of Herndon Avenue, will there be a signal at Arthur Avenue?

At Herndon and Arthur? Yes. No, there is no proposed signal there.

So all vehicle traffic will come that's going eastward will go out on Riverside Drive?

Eastward on Herndon Avenue?

Yes.

So along Herndon Avenue, if you're traveling eastward, you can either access the Costco via Arthur, which has been vacated and is now a private drive, or you can go to Riverside and go to one of the entrances that are along there.

When when you're exiting from the Costco Mhmm. Onto Herndon?

Exiting from Costco, you can either again, you can take Riverside Drive to Herndon or you can use the private drive, that's formerly Arthur Avenue, and turn only right onto Herndon. You cannot turn left onto Herndon from Arthur.

Okay. Mhmm. Thank you. Of course. Yes. We're ready for a presentation from the microscope.

Good evening. My name is Perry Holiday. I'm with Costco. I wanted to say thanks for for hearing us tonight. We are back again, and, we'd love to present to you, our proposed project. I believe, some of you are are new to the project, so we'd like to answer any of your questions. I'll be, basically on the sidelines while Lynette Diaz, who is our project planner, will present the presentation. Oh, and one more thing. I do wanna, give a little credit to, city staff. They've been really diligent and patient and working with us very closely, And I just wanted to acknowledge their efforts. So I'm gonna hand it over to

Lynette.

Okay. Great. Cool. Evening. As Perry mentioned, I'm Lynette Diaz with Urban Planning Partners, and I am the planner on this. Other members of our team here tonight include Eric Phillips, who is our legal counsel. And there also is Kimberly Horn, who's our civil architect is not here tonight, but we can answer any questions related to that. And that's right. Oh, I didn't see him earlier. He snuck in.

So we do have Mike. I was kinda surprised he wasn't here. So that is our team. Also, the EIR consultant that worked with the city, I believe is online. And then two technical folks from their team, from the traffic engineering firm, as well as greenhouse gas, air quality noise consultant. Ramble are both here as well. In case technical questions come up from you guys about those. Next slide, please. Oh, I have the thank you. So we're gonna keep our presentation pretty quick tonight.

We wanna talk a little bit about who is Costco and how are they such a great member of the community. If you don't already know that, they do a lot of stuff for the community everywhere they are. But in Fresno, over 60% of the households are Costco members. And Costco gives a lot. I'm not gonna go down the list, but all of those.

They're also a very significant contributor to the sales tax for the city of Fresno. They do backpack programs. We do a lot with the schools as well. So there's been a question about why relocate? Why do you need another Costco in Fresno? Well, if any of you have been to the Shaw store, you probably know why we do. But I think there's still some members of the community. It was built in a very long time ago, 1985. It was one of the very originals and it just doesn't have all the things that most of the Costcos have. It's too small.

There's not enough parking. There's not enough fuel pumps. So then the cars back up because there's not enough fuel stations to move everybody through. So the members would really benefit from a new store. And then it wasn't easy for us to pick a site in Fresno that met all the criteria for one of our new stores.

And so we really wanted a site that was zoned and general planned for the uses that we're proposing. This site is that with the only exception being for the car wash. And so we are applying for a revision for that because we want to have a car wash, but we didn't have to have a car wash. But our members really like to have a car wash. The proximity to the highway is always important for a Costco. This site is that. We also didn't want it to be too far away from the existing Shaw location. As that, you know, we serve our members. We know where all our members live. And so if we moved too far away from that, our members weren't going to be happy.

So we were looking for a spot within two miles of that. And starting back in 2018, working with the city, this is one of the sites that they showed us and it was available and was really the only one that met all those criteria. So the new Costco features, I think if you are familiar with Costco, you know most of them. But this one will have enough room for all of the Costco amenities, optometrists, tire shop, very large grocery section. I know the section at Shaw is pretty limited.

And optical, all of that will be there. The new fuel station will be 32 pumps. So what we have found with that is you don't get the backup queuing because there's enough pumps to serve the demand. So they work a lot better at that size. It will have a new car wash. That's not something that many Costcos have. So you'll be relatively unique with having that. But for the ones that we where there are the members have really liked that. And a big plus is there'll be enough parking. The Shaw location is very constrained and there's no room to expand to make that work better.

So Stephen mentioned the local street improvements. So I'm not going to go into them in a lot of detail. But there are a lot of things that we're doing as part of the project to make sure the traffic works, to make sure the circulation works and everybody can get to where they're going. Now, does that mean on day one, everything's going to work perfect? No.

It takes a while for everybody to figure it out. But in a very short time, it will work really well. So, but everybody has to get used to it. There's also a lot of regional off-site work that we are doing as part of the project. The intersection of North Golden State and West Hurdan will have new signage and striping.

There'll be improvements at at Weber and West Herndon and North Hayes And Spruce. There'll be tie in and traffic calming at West Spruce. And then on West Hurton, parts of it will be resurfaced, restriping. There will be the westbound turn lane will be readjusted to work for the project to North Hayes Avenue. This is pretty detailed on the truck routing, but it is something that a lot of the neighbors were concerned about.

And we've really limited where to keep the trucks off of North Riverside. So they will either be coming and going from West Herndon or Arthur, the new connection that Costco will construct between Western and Spruce, which is consistent with the city's general plan. And so both warehouse deliveries as well as fuel deliveries will be kept off of North Riverside. So I think those are the primary details from our last time around. And that's kind of what we focused on.

I think, you know, there are a couple of new commissioners. So if you have more questions and want us to go into more detail, just let us know.

Thank you. Does anyone have questions

for

Yeah. Thank you very much for the presentation. So I have a quick question for you. I'm very familiar with the community, with a lot of homes, Rio Vista Middle School, San Diego School District, new homes, apartment type, condos are being built there. Traffic, that is one of the concerns that the community members have. So did Costco consider the traffic? Is is it gonna like I said, on the first day, absolutely. You're right. You know, it takes it takes time but are all those plans implemented that the community because there are Century Homes, Lennar homes in the back as well. A lot of homes there.

Right? So it was that considered? The traffic?

Absolutely. As part of the CEQA analysis, they CEQA no longer requires a level of service analysis, which is was more the traditional way of assessing or historical way, I should say, of assessing traffic based on how long you have to wait at an intersection. You know, what's the delay? Sequin now looks at vehicle miles traveled, which was something like a Costco. You can imagine there's a lot of vehicle miles traveled because everybody drives to Costco.

And but stores like this that are taking the place of another one, there's not as many vehicle miles traveled because you're trading them off. You're also helping improve the backup that happens at the existing Costco won't happen here once everybody gets used to it. So to answer your question, though, about the neighborhoods, that was considered very carefully. We had a lot of community engagement. Engagement. All the and outside of the sequence analysis, a transportation study was done. And the city engineers worked on it. And that's the list of conditions and improvements that we're proposing. Some of them were proposing. Some of them are conditions.

We've agreed to them all to make sure that that all works well. And that's originally, we did not have all the trucks off of Riverside. They all they are now initially early in the planning process. Arthur wasn't proposed to go through all the way. So there's been a lot of revisions made to the project to address those concerns.

Thank you.

Okay. I just wanna clarify to piggyback on that. Spruce will go all the way through and theoretically, it will go all the way to Melbourne.

Spruce will not. Arthur will go all the way through. Am I correct? Spruce.

Okay. Pardon?

We might have to if we get too technical here, I'll have one of, the civil engineer come up.

But so Spruce will stop at Arthur?

Yes. No? No. Okay. Cassie's gonna come up and save me.

Hi, everybody. Cassie Cuso, Kimley Horn. We're the civil engineer. So Spruce will connect all the way through from a Riverside to where it currently terminates right outside of Riverside Golf Course. As part of that connection, it kind of tapers in. We are not doing that work. It's actually a narrower street section to slow cars down. We know that the when we met with community members, the speed of Spruce was an item and concern. We're also adding some traffic calming measures further up to Hayes and adding a stop intersection at Hayes to also slow folks down. So, Spruce will connect all the way through with some additional traffic calming measures.

Okay. Because I'm just really concerned that when cars come out of Riverside or Arthur, they're all gonna go to Riverside to make a U-turn or, you know, to go straight, you know, and connect to Weber or wherever, but cars going east are gonna be really hampered. Everyone that wants to go east is gonna have to make a U-turn, But, if they can go through to Hayes or to Melbourne, then there is another alternative as long as it doesn't impact the neighborhoods. Because that, I know, is a real concern.

Yeah. So, there are two driveway exits to the that will now be the private drive, Arthur. So, you could without making a U-turn, you could go east onto Arthur, take a left, and go up to what will be the new Spruce connection, and make a right turn, and go out that way. So, not everything has to make that U-turn and go back. Spruce will connect all

the way through. Okay. Thank you.

Cool. Thank you.

See, that wasn't originally proposed. That's something that changed. Yeah. No. So, away. Have our team here so we can answer your questions.

Thank you. Is there anything else? Thank you. You're welcome. Now, we'll go out to the public. Is there any members of the public who wish to comment in favor of that application?

Good evening, madam chair, commissioners. My name is Doug Jensen. I'm representing Jenco Farms, is the owner of that property. And we urge you to adopt the staff's positive recommendation. And I, as a Costco member, look forward to having enough parking space. Thank you. If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in favor? Here, are there any members of the public here who are in opposition to the project? Please state your name and address. Three minutes

sure thanks commissioner Bray hi my name is Daniel Brannock I'm here representing the herni Riverside coalition for responsible planning and development were address at 5588. North Palm Avenue in Fresno. I'm here today to speak in opposition to the project not speaking in opposition to Costco. Speaking in opposition to the. Environmental review process that's been flawed in this and also the. Not just for this project but the very problematic precedent being set about the zoning. A lot of this has already been stated in comments. I really don't want to have to reiterate too much more. So, I would just say everything is incorporated by reference. We're frankly probably going to talk more at city council about this too but I'll try to touch on some stuff very quickly.

Start with the zoning and general plan inconsistency of the MDO distribution facility. I guess I would be asking. So, what's changed here? There's still an MDO. The zoning is still commercial. There's been no text amendments to suddenly reconcile something. One of three things would have had to happen for the zoning to work. They either need to drop the MDO. They need to zone this to light industrial because that would allow the entire use. Or there needs to be a text amendment to the city zoning ordinance.

That was a very doable task and it hasn't been done. And until one of those things happens, they can't do the project here under the zoning ordinance. The second thing I'll talk about is briefly the very fun topic of greenhouse gas emissions and BMT and the real interplay between the two. The city revised the EIR to not reference the 2021 EIR getting thrown out in court, was one of the various circumstances that mister Martinez alluded to. So now that we're relying on the 2014 document, just like saying something is on fleek in 2026, the it's not a twelve year old document doesn't fly in 2026.

That's a simple version. There's going be more there's more substantial content in response to that in the comments that have been submitted and forthcoming. I will say the other aspect to consider there, mean, the it's just fundamentally incompatible that you can have such a massive VMT impact and not have a significant GHG impact. I'll say that. I've had conversations with people at Carb about it and they agree.

So we'll see if there's ever any weigh in on that. The big difference between 2024 and now is the city and Costco frankly could have called it significant unavoidable, called it what it is, just done the accountable thing under CEQA and moved on with the project. And now the city has its VMT fee mitigation program and that exists as feasible mitigation measures. It's irrelevant if it is applicable as a matter of local law. It exists as a mitigation measure. So given this significant determination, it's in play for consideration. I'll just say a couple other things briefly. Know, that VMT program has 67,429 units of of VMT it's trying to address.

I'm sorry.

You're trying a 120,000. That's nearly double. So with that, I'll conclude my time. Thank you for everything today, and I'll probably be back in two weeks. Thanks. Thank you.

So is there anyone else in opposition to the project? We'll bring that back to the commission. Would the applicant like to provide a rebuttal to what was said?

Yes, good evening. Thank you, Commissioner Brain. My name is Eric Phillips. I'm a land use lawyer from Burke William Sorenson representing Costco. And just to be respectful of your time, I will say that much of the one thing that we we probably do agree with with the comments that we heard in opposition to the project tonight is that much of the information is already in the record for your review.

I think that the city has done an excellent job laying out in great detail the basis for its land use consistency finding. The project as a whole, Costco and all of its integrated uses are a large format retail use, which is unquestionably permitted in this zone. So we strongly disagree with the contention that there's a land use inconsistency. We're happy to answer any questions or provide further detail about that. But again, the city's detailed findings, we think, do an excellent job of spelling out the the city's thought process on that consistency issue.

With respect to the EIR process, we also are fully in support of the work the city has done to update its greenhouse gas emissions analysis in the recirculated EIR. It is not correct that this that the city's updated analysis only relies on the older GHGRP even though that is the only greenhouse gas reduction plan that's adopted and in effect in the city right now. The analysis takes a conservative approach and looks at other metrics and other plan consistency issues to reach the conclusions and support the finding that it is a less than significant greenhouse gas impact, notwithstanding the fact that the project would increase BMT, which certainly nobody disputes. The last point is that although the city does now have a VMT mitigation fee, that fee when it was adopted expressly excluded projects like this one, which were in process, which had already prepared a transportation analysis. There therefore is no legally feasible mechanism to apply that as mitigation to the project.

And we think, again, the city's record on that is very clear. So for those reasons and then more positively, all the the great reasons that you heard, Holiday and miss Diaz talk about what the project will bring to the community and and contribute as a member of the community. Again, we respectfully request that you recommend approval of the project this evening.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Actually, I I don't have a question. I just wanna say the Shaw Avenue Costco is very congested. My family goes there. I see it. And there is a huge shopping center which kinda makes sense. And we do need to keep that Costco in Fresno. I mean, I wanna make it very clear because it does first of all, it's convenient for the community members the way the gas prices are. Actually, Costco keeps the competition with like, it's a good thing. It's it's a good thing for the consumer to keep the pricing in check. Excuse me.

Commissioner, we can do that once we close the hearing. If you don't have any questions for the applicant, that would

be part

of our discussion.

Vice Chairbright, by coming back to the dais and no longer allowing public comment, you've already closed the hearing. So you you can debate at this

point. Okay.

So, you know, it's and the thing is, I mean, there is no way Fresno, especially West Of 99. I mean, West Of 99 community has already has a desert of stores. Thank you to Veterans Boulevard, the 9372293723 Community. I mean, there are 70,000 families that reside in that side of Fresno. So I would like to whenever it's appropriate, I would like to request approval of this project.

All right, thank you. Do you have any comments or questions? I did have a question, but I'll let it go. Okay. Alright. So, does anybody have any discussion on this or would someone like to make a motion?

I would like to make a motion to approve it.

Second? We have a motion by Commissioner Schirkel with a second by Commissioner Lyde. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Commissioner Liday? Yes. Commissioner Calandra? Yes. Commissioner Diaz? Yes. Commissioner Schurgill?

Absolutely yes.

Vice Chair Bray? Yes. Motion passes. We now do you have anything for the secretary to report?

At your places, you will find a calendar for historic preservation month. As as our tradition, we ask that the planning commissioners try to attend at least one event on this calendar. I would encourage you. There are a couple of really great events, but tomorrow night is kind of the kickoff of historic preservation month month at the archive on Kern, which is, the, Fresno City County Historical Society's new, location. So they have a kickoff.

And then on Thursday, May 21 is the annual pub quiz. It will be held at the new Moses McQueens in Downtown Fresno. So I would encourage you if you're wanting to do that. Maybe you you all form a team or get a group of people to go and and compete at the pub quiz. So, that's my main report. We're really excited. There are as you can see, a lot of activities this year on the calendar. A lot of partners, are participating, so we're we're really pleased to see a lot of momentum happening in our historic preservation space in Fresno. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any unscheduled oral communications? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.

Thank you.