Plugging a Costco facility in that site would create a staggering traffic nightmare in that crossroads area. I do not know of any commercial establishment that creates more vehicle parking issues all day long than Costco. Johnson drive only has 2 outlets because of the sewer ponds, so I can only imagine the backups trying to get back onto Stoneridge or out at the other end by Home Depot. Traffic in this city is already out of control.

We DO NOT Need a Cosco in Pleasanton!! There would be two costco's within five minutes drive of that location. The city planners are not thinking about the residents of Pleasanton. plus, isn't there a smart and final right around the corner? I can just see the traffic headache that this would cause. It would cause severe back ups on not only Johnson Drive but also on Stoneridge Drive. Can you imagine trying to get on the freeway or going to the mall? I think it would bring traffic and danger to Wayside park, putting kids who use that park at an unnecessary risk. The traffic is bad enough with everyone getting their recycled water! Let's not add to it! It would also cause a lot of congestion and traffic on Hopyard Road. I understand that the cities main focus is tax revenue but, it's time to stop and think about the residence!

"two-lane Johnson Drive that is already crowded with traffic from businesses on Johnson Drive"
That's why Clorox moved while waiting for the city planners to make up their mind about expanding the road.

Another Costco another hotel heck why not another bank three things the city does not need more of

No matter what business goes in there whether it be Costco or a hotel the traffic will be a nightmare, Even if they expand Johnson Drive to four lanes, it will not help with the congestion that such a large retailer as Cosco would bring in. That area is already too congested, Go to in and out burger any night and you'll see what I mean. They would need to expand every road in and out of Johnson Drive including hopyard, Stoneridge and both their on and off ramps, and at no cost to city taxpayers, I don't buy it!

I would love to see a Costco or some other major generator of local tax income for the city as long as they provide the necessary traffic mitigation/improvements needed for the development. The city could use the millions of dollars generated by a large business such as Costco to provide additional needed services. I say bring it on!!

Everyone can protest till the cows come home and the city will do exactly what they want to do.
You can go to the city council meetings and express your dislike and they will sit there and listen to you and turn right around and vote for what THEY want, not what you want.
If they think a Costco will be good that is exactly what will be built!

Is anyone in the Pleasanton city government committed to having Pleasanton retain any semblance of a "small town feel", or are we already way past that point with all the development that has gone on? What do we want Pleasanton to look like in 10 or 20 years? Seems like we're going the way of Dublin.

Damon,

The ship sailed on the small town feel back say in the early 1990's. That said I favor a quality company like Costco moving into town. Will be a nice source of tax revenue going forward and can be counted on to supply jobs

Irrigation supplies at Home Depot, gas at Costco, water at the waste treatment plant, aka "the Pleasanton Loop" :-)

I would LOVE to have a Costco closer to me. I never buy anything frozen from Livermore or Danville Costco because it would be a defrosted mess by the time I got home. "Small town feel" equals inconvenience and requires going to other cities to shop.

$50 million out of Pleasanton taxpayers pockets to have F-level congestion on Stoneridge Drive? That's what I heard at the Planning Commission meeting. Pleasanton Weekly also didn't report that the EIR listed not only unacceptable traffic in the area, but also a radical decrease in air quality. The Alamo Canal Trail runs right by this property and Val Vista park, with it's popular soccer fields, is across the street. The City doesn't even have assurances from CalTrans that they can build the new on-ramps. CalTrans is not interested in a large upswing in traffic on I680. Are you?

It will be great for Pleasanton and it is the type of business which should go in that part of town. Good location to draw in customers from other towns as well. Pleasanton is no longer a stand alone city. We are very much connected now to Dublin and Livermore.

@Ann....the Val Vista park is right across the street? From the site this Costco 'might; be???? I think you better go look again.
The site is on Johnson Dr, by the freeway. The park in Val Vista is off Stoneridge. Not even close.

I agree the ship sailed a long time ago on Pleasanton being a small town. C'mon, Mayberry did not have over 70,000 people and it wasnt at the crossroad of I680/580. So get real and into the present.

I do agree however that altho the sales tax revenue would be nice to build the parks, schools and other perks we Pleasantians demand, the traffic would be a disaster for the last remaining decent freeway access especially when it also serves Stoneridge Mall for the majority of residents. Look at the Bollinger Canyon freeway access where Target and shops are located. What a mess coming and going, and that was probably studied by some traffic engineer too who said it would work. Plus that curve near Club Sport has had fatalities so people not familiar may be in trouble.

JAN, Anybody making it to the Livermore or San Ramon Costco from ptown in 5 minutes is driving way too fast and irresponsibly and needs to be taken out of the drivers seat, bring on that Costco and the road improvements that come along with it!! Straighten out Johnson drive, get rid of that park and ride where all our cars kept getting broken in too, then get rid of all those cars parked alongside Johnson drive then bring on those sales tax dollars, maybe someday we will even get our own movie theater- Again!!

"that a Costco warehouse store could provide huge sales taxes for Pleasanton." so basically they just need some business to generate our local residents' money into sale taxes. why don't they invite wholefood or expand a Trader Joe's store there. Pleasanton doesn't need a costo here.

"I do agree however that altho the sales tax revenue would be nice to build the parks, schools and other perks we Pleasantians demand..."

I keep wondering why does Pleasanton even need more and more tax revenue? It's not like we don't already have a lot of businesses here already. In addition to all of the small businesses scattered throughout Pleasanton, we have Stoneridge Mall, which I'm sure generates a lot of tax revenue. We also have that large Hacienda Business Park area filled with a number of businesses including Oracle. Don't we also get tax revenues from that large outlet mall that was recently built and which draws shoppers from all over the Bay Area? And recently I heard of plans to build a large Asian-themed shopping area over there by the outlets, too. Sure, more tax revenue is always nice but, seriously, it's not like we're a community which is desperately short of tax revenues from local businesses. At what point do we say "enough"? At what point do we say that we're not willing to deal with further traffic congestion and growth for the sake of more and more tax revenue?

Move the Park and Ride to the empty lot adjacent to the current log and improve Johnson Dr.

I think a Costco in town would be an absolutely great thing. It is placed close to the freeway, in an industrial area - GREAT IDEA!

I am against the idea of having a Cosco in town! The other Cosco's are within a short drive. I walk on the trail several days a week and I can't imagine any more traffic than what's already on that road, even with the residents of Pleasanton having to pay $$$$$ for a new road! I agree the air-quality for the trail and the park that happens to be very close by would all be affected. What happens if Cosco moves in, does smart and final go out of business? Will there be another empty grocery store sitting vacant for years? Maybe another walmart can move in to the smart and final building? Not smart planning!

Damon,

The time to put the brakes on was years ago if not a couple decades. Pleasanton is no longer a little town but part of a large metro area and must make decisions based on future projected needs. We need to fill up the Hacienda Business park as well as encouraging companies like Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods et al to move into town. We have guaranteed union contracts to fulfill and long term pension liabilities which will need to be paid. Without additional long term sources of revenue we will look like Stockton and other towns. Our competition surrounds us, Dublin and Livermore.We learned a lot when Hacienda Crossings went to Dublin.

I think a hotel would go nicely on the site. Just so it doesn't have any toilets or showers that require water.

cant wait for costo

While I don't support bringing in any more "big box stores" we have to be reasonable and realistic in what we complain about now but allow something worse later on. I call to attention the fact that Pleasanton residents had a fit about the proposed Home Deport and shopping center at the corner of Stanley and Bernal. The argument then was about the traffic that these stores would create. Guess what, now we have hundreds of homes or apartments being built in that same location. How many cars (traffic) do people think that all of those residents will bring. Not to mention the strain on our infrastructure, i.e. police, fire dept., schools, water and electricity. Why isn't Pleasanton Weekly writing about that mess?

The aspect of squeezing in more entities so we get more taxes to pay for more community services, water, schools, wider streets, on and on, is like wiping your a** with a hula hoop !! At some point the quality of life is gone for good. Some people have hit on it here, it is already lost so what is there to save? Bring on a Costco so I can get my ice cream home before it melts ? Some tiny minds at work demonstrated here. Please, somebody come up with a red leg frog, plant it on that site, and take some pics.

If not a Costco or movie theater then I vote for windmills! Zero traffic, no water used, and generates clean power.

Welcome to the new San Fernando Valley. Look up Council Member's Donors, that will tell what will happen. Pleasanton Chamber and Developers run this Council.

why do we need all that tax revenue?? I understand 75 percent of the city general funds goes to its public employee salaries and pensions. And now the city wants to build a new city hall and library. These things take money to do. Plus rising costs to repair streets and sewers and similar. Oh and Bernal Park.

i also wonder about the question of what does quality of life mean? it seems to me that many people are too demanding and complain too much over things that shouldnt matter. pleasanton is a wonderful place to live and yet people in this blog just complain and moan. our quality of life as a community is pretty darn good.

Welcome Costco, Livermore is too far with traffic,!

Helen the address for Val Vista Community Park is 7350 Johnson Dr. It is directly across Stoneridge Drive from the proposed development site. The site is not just where the old Clorox buildings were, it is is huge. It covers all the open space in that area. There is no way that the increased traffic at the Stoneridge Drive-Johnson Drive intersection wont effect access to the park, DSRSD water treatment plant and all the existing businesses around it on Johnson Drive. If you have ever been on Stoneridge west of Hopyard around 5:00 pm, when the traffic waiting to get on the freeway is backed up to Denker-Franklin, you'd appreciate just what double the number of cars in that area will mean. The City proposes spending $50 million to put in new on-ramps and widen Johnson and Stoneridge (a street, which in that section doesn't even have a sidewalk on the south side). But, the traffic department also says that they are willing to have level F traffic there--that's more than twice what it is now. Unlike hotels or offices, stores like that generate traffic all day, including large delivery trucks. Traffic aside, what they can't mitigate is the reduction in air quality. It will decrease to unacceptable levels in an area, which contains a community park, trails not to mention a large tract of housing. Winds there blow from the west, so it will creep into the rest of Pleasanton as well. There is a huge lot at the corner of Gibraltar and Willow in Hacienda Business Park, easily accessible from two freeway off-ramps and within walking distance of the huge commuter housing being built near the BART station. It would be a much better site for a big box store than trying to ram it into a small office-hotel site.

The size of this area is roughly the size of the parking lot of the Livermore Costco. Costco has better business sense than this. Sounds like yet another example of PW commentators making something out of nothing.

There is nothing to this rumor but speculation. Nothing has been submitted by Costco, there is nothing from them submitted to the council or planning commission. This is all rumors.
Settle down folks and wait till you have something to complain about.

Rebecca, this is not rumor and speculation. Even the mayor has mentioned discussions with Costco, and Costco going in there. The city is planning for this and would love the sales tax revenue.

For those that this this is "rumor and speculation" please go back and read the article:

"Even so, it's no secret that Costco representatives have expressed an interest in the site"

"Throughout the public hearing, speakers referred to Costco as a potential developer of the site, claims that were not refuted by planning commissioners or (associate planner Eric) Luchini."

"Costco, long rumored as interested in the site, was mentioned during a public hearing by the city's Planning Commission even though the wholesale membership-only retailer has never said publicly that it might build here.

Gerry Beaudin, director of Community Development and head of the city planning department, said the city does not have a permit application at this time from Costco."

This is not a rumor Costco has approached the businesses that are existing to try and buy their buildings. It's not just the vacant Clorox land they are after, they want the the large AT&T facility next-door, black-tie as well as several of the other businesses on Johnson Drive and commerce Circle. They can say they haven't approach the city yet (lie) because until they can make deals to buy those businesses up nothing can happen unless the city just forces the sale of those lands by rezoning the area, or forcing them out. Which wouldn't surprise me because they are hungry to get Cosco in Pleasanton, at any cost

Indian casino on the site an option?

Forget the whip snakes or that rare weed spotted on that property, throw a couple arrowheads out there, stand back and wait for the stampede of Indian tribes and Las Vegas investors, the city council and planning committees will be flipping and flopping all over each other.

Maybe another Starbucks?

The city council obviously doesn't commute to any other city for their employment!!!! They just want cheap quick revenue to make them look like hero's. (Many of us are above the pay grade of clerks at Costco and commute to our jobs! ) Already many mornings it takes 30 minutes to get from Stoneridge entrance to BernaL south down the 680. Can you imagine what the new" slum" at the Safeway center with 600 new homes and their cars will dump in that 680 intersection, and increase the traffic snafu? The city council has given us an increased home invasion crime spree, and increased our monthly expenses to pay for security systems to pay for our safety, when they thought a Bart entrance at the mall would be a good idea. The mall merchants themselves call it the "Oakland Entrance." We previously enjoyed a quiet home, and felt safe but now we all have to have security systems and neighborhood watch programs. So with a Costco, I see increased traffic, and a whole lot of riffraff that just decide to shop Pleasanton Costco, then they see what a pleasant, affluent community it is and then decide to rob, steal, and pillage the homes we have worked hard to have. Reducing our little "Courier and Ives" community to a CHEAP METROPLEX FOR THEFT!!!! When did the City Council decide on their own that Pleasanton should be a metro area rather than a fine family community???? dcl

Donna....I shop Costco regularly and I have never seen 'riffraff' there. What makes you think riffraff will be hanging out at Costco?
Geez you make it sound like it's some sort of low class establishment.
And I don't think that any shoppers at Costco will interfere with your commute! And if your security system is running and your Neighborhood Watch is active I really think the shoppers at Costco won't bother you.
A little less paranoia is needed maybe.