Costco appeal postponed again

Carson City officials came close to closing a deal Thursday with a business opposing a special use permit for Costco, but one unresolved issue caused city supervisors to postpone the appeal.

City Manager John Berkich, Deputy District Attorney Neil Rombardo and other city staff have worked for over a month to negotiate a deal with Gene and Judy Lepire, owners of Comstock Country RV Park. Almost the entire deal with Costco's apparent future neighbors was worked out except one issue regarding delivery times.

The Lepire's were appealing the planning commission's Feb. 23 decision to allow Costco to build a 148,385-square-foot warehouse with 749 parking spaces and a six-pump gas station across Clear Creek Road from Fuji Park.

The Lepires share a property line with the Costco site, and the proposed building is along the same edge as the RV park. The Lepires contend delivery trucks will cause excess noise and requested the trucks come only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Costco tried to mitigate noise concerns by moving the proposed building west by 70 feet, giving more than 100 feet of space between the RV park and the store as well as putting soundwalls around their delivery area and an eight-foot soundwall on the property line between Costco and the RV Park.

Supervisors were opposed to putting extra restrictions on Costco, but staff asked for time to work the issue out without letting the whole deal fall apart.

The single unresolved issue caused supervisors in a 4-to-1 vote to postpone a decision on the permit appeal until a special April 27 meeting. Supervisor Robin Williamson cast the dissenting vote.

Lepire attorney Richard Elmore promised the remaining issue would be resolved before the next meeting where supervisors are also scheduled to hear the final deal with Costco.

"My clients are not against bringing in Costco," Elmore said. "Believe me, this isn't the issue where that's going to happen. A lot of pressure has been exerted on my clients by the sheer need of the city to land this project. I promise you, we will solve this."

The rest of the tentative deal between the city and the Lepires will cost the city $207,300 in improvements to the RV Park and Clear Creek Road. Money for the improvements will be taken from money expected from the sale of 15 acres of city land to Costco. Improvements include:

- $55,000 for a soundwall on the southern boundary between Clear Creek Road and the RV park

- $50,300 for a driveway into the RV park.

- $87,000 in sewer and water connections.

- $30,000 in revenues that will be lost during construction this summer.

- Costco will construct a soundwall estimated between $90,000 and $100,0000 between the two properties.

- The Lepires will pay the city $15,000 for a 1.9 acre parcel of land that borders Clear Creak Road and Highway 395.

"The rest of the items don't go into effect until this last item is solved," Mayor Ray Masayko said.