Costco Gas Station Approved By San Ramon City Council (2024)

The hotly debated gas station will be located across the street from the Danville Costco location. See why the council decided to proceed.

Posted Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 12:29 pm PT

The self-serve and attended service station would be located across the street from Danville's Costco store at 3150 Fostoria Way. The gas station would offer lower-than-average prices and be open 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day on the nearly three-acre lot at 3111 Fostoria Way, where a commercial building currently sits, according to the proposal.

The proposal includes plans for a traffic signal at the Costco driveway intersection to mitigate traffic.

The council unanimously voted to approve the project Feb. 11 during a special meeting that ran nearly three hours.

Supporters of the controversial project have lauded the convenience of the gas station and expressed skepticism that the project would bring major effects to the surrounding neighborhood.

Members of local group Safer San Ramon rallied to oppose the project and argued that a Costco gas station would significantly increase traffic and noise and pose public health and environmental hazards to the community.

City planners maintained that these variables would either be insignificant or addressed in the plan.

An analysis performed on behalf of Costco by Kittelson & Associates said that the gas station could bring 6,870 daily trips to the station, with 345 net new gas-only trips. A number of the gas station trips would likely be from existing Danville Costco members who would already be visiting the warehouse, according to the analysis.

Gas station trips were estimated to peak at 386 per hour in the morning and 576 per hour in the afternoon and evening.

Deborah Fahr, senior traffic engineer, affirmed during last week's meeting that she approved of Kittelson & Associates' methodology and findings. Fahr acknowledged that the gas station would bring additional traffic to the area, but said that the effect should be "less than significant" — about 1,900 to 3,600 new trips on Fostoria Way per day. Surrounding streets would also see smaller upticks in use.

Costco determined that 9,500 members who frequent the Danville store said they used Livermore's Costco gas station, said Anna Shimko, a land use and real estate lawyer retained as outside counsel for Costco, during the hearing. Danville Costco regulars also shopped for gas in Concord and Hayward.

The city's planning commission voted to approve the proposal Dec. 15.

An appeal was filed one week later by Reza Mahmoodi, who gave a presentation at last week's council meeting. In his appeal, Mahmoodi disputed the findings of traffic analyses and an air quality impact analysis, according to a report from the city. He also called for a complete review of possible environmental impacts and said officials should consider the effect on small gasoline retailers in town.

These materials were provided to the planning commission before it voted to approve the proposal, the city said.

"I really love this city," he said. "I'm not saying let's not put a Costco [gas station], I'm just saying we need to do more due diligence."

Mayor Dave Hudson said the possibility of a Costco gas station in the area has been a matter of discussion for years. "If this site were in Danville, ... it would be approved tonight," he said.

Councilmember Sabina Zafar said that officials have been reviewing proposals related to the gas station for almost a year and had thoroughly vetted the matter by the time it arrived on the City Council agenda.

She also noted that the approval of the project comes amid a time of economic difficulty when revenue from a Costco gas station would be beneficial to the city.

View the full city report, including the response to concerns raised in the appeal, here.