Costco Project Clears Hurdle At Pleasanton Planning Commission

PLEASANTON, CA — The controversial Johnson Drive Economic Development Zone project is expected to head to a vote before the Pleasanton City Council February, after it cleared the Planning Commission last week, Pleasanton Weekly reported Wednesday. The project could bring a Costco, two hotels and other stores to a 40-acre lot along Johnson Drive near I-680 and Stoneridge Drive.

The council first endorsed the idea of the Johnson Drive project in April 2014, according to a document presented at the Dec. 11 Planning Commission meeting. The site has previously been home to the Colorox Corporation, AT&T, FedEx and more, but 20 acres of the property have been vacant since Clorox moved in 2013.

An initiative was on the November 2016 ballot that sought to ban big-box stores of 50,000 square feet or more in the Johnson Drive Economic Development Zone. Sixty-three percent of voters cast "no" ballots, allowing the project to move forward.

The Council approved the plan in November 2017, but a month later, a group of residents sued, challenging an environmental report. They alleged the project could adversely impact air quality for residents of the Stoneridge Apartment complex across the freeway and said the public didn't have enough time to consider the environmental report, Planning Commission documents show.

The Council backed off in September 2018, rescinding the environmental report and project approvals. The city has since worked to prepare environmental analyses, which were approved at the recent Planning Commission meeting.

Read more at Pleasanton Weekly.