Fresno County Costco proposal heads to key votes after court delay

Fresno’s long-running fight over a new Costco in northwest Fresno is back before city decision-makers, with two votes in May set to decide whether the project moves ahead or stalls again. The proposal for 7120 North Riverside Drive, at the northeast corner of West Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive, goes to the Fresno Planning Commission on Wednesday, May 6, and then to the Fresno City Council on May 21.

The project was sidelined after a July 2025 Fresno County Superior Court ruling in case No. 24CECG02208, brought by the Herndon-Riverside Coalition for Responsible Planning and Development against the City of Fresno and others. City officials responded with a Partially Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report released in November 2025, with a comment period from November 21, 2025, through January 5, 2026. The revised review was prepared to comply with the court order, and city notice says the updated greenhouse gas analysis no longer relies on the city’s 2021 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan after a separate Fifth District Court of Appeal ruling in South Fresno Community Alliance v. City of Fresno.

The project would replace the existing West Shaw Avenue Costco, which opened in 1985, with a larger warehouse on about 22.4 acres of vacant land. Earlier plans described the store as about 219,000 square feet, with an attached tire center, a detached gas station, a drive-through car wash and a market delivery operation. Traffic remains the central issue. The updated approval package includes an all-way stop at Spruce and Hayes avenues and a high-visibility crosswalk, changes meant to answer objections that the store would dump more cars and delivery traffic into an already busy part of northwest Fresno.

Supporters argue the move would keep the retailer, its jobs and its tax dollars in Fresno instead of sending them to places such as Madera County, Clovis or Kerman. At the April 18, 2024, council meeting, the project won unanimous approval, 7-0, after the city added traffic and parking conditions tied to road improvements and truck routing. Backers have also pointed to the financial payoff, with estimates ranging from about $13 million to about $15 million in annual total tax revenue, plus earlier projections of about 37 full-time jobs and more than $210,000 in Central Unified school bond revenue, up from less than $3,000 at the current site.

The coming votes will show whether Fresno believes those revisions truly resolve the traffic and neighborhood concerns, or simply postpone them while another major retail project pushes deeper into northwest Fresno’s growth corridor.