Fresno reapproves Costco megastore as lawsuit threat looms
Fresno shoppers could gain the state’s biggest Costco, but a new court fight could still delay the project and send millions in tax revenue elsewhere.
Fresno residents may still wait for the northwest Costco megastore they were promised, and the city could still lose millions in annual tax revenue, if litigation again slows the project at Herndon Avenue and Riverside Drive.
The Fresno City Council unanimously reapproved the controversial warehouse Thursday, May 21, after two years of delays and legal fights. The project had first won approval in 2024, then was blocked after the Herndon-Riverside Coalition for Responsible Planning and Development challenged it in Fresno County Superior Court.
A judge had previously found the city’s environmental analysis inadequate and said Fresno had not shown its laws allow the distribution space tied to the proposal. The latest council vote does not end the fight. A judge still must decide whether the city’s revised planning and environmental review satisfies that earlier ruling.
The project is being pitched as a first-of-its-kind Fresno prototype that combines a retail warehouse with a last-mile delivery and fulfillment center. City leaders say it would be Costco’s largest location in California, with more than 240,000 square feet of retail warehouse space.
That scale is part of the appeal for Fresno officials, who have said the store could generate millions of dollars in annual tax revenue. It is also why councilmembers warned that Costco could shift the project to Madera County if Fresno keeps losing time in court.
The legal battle is not over on the city side, either. City attorney Andrew Janz and Costco attorney Anna Shimko were publicly involved in the latest approval process, while land-use attorney Daniel Brannick said the opposition would challenge the project again if needed. For Costco Wholesale, the issue is whether Fresno can clear the legal hurdles fast enough to keep the company invested in the site.
For northwest Fresno, the stakes are immediate: a major retail anchor, new delivery operations, and the traffic that would come with a regional shopping destination could still be months or years away if the court fight drags on. For the city, the choice is equally stark: defend the project through another round of litigation or risk watching one of its biggest economic development bets move across the county line.
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