Commissioners Approve East Naples Costco

In a marathon meeting, the Collier County Commission approved the application to build a new Costco facility at the corner of Rattlesnake Blvd. and Collier Blvd. The vote was 5-0, despite hours of public comment from residents, primarily in the adjacent Hacienda Lakes community, largely arguing against the proposal.  

The commission’s thumbs up followed on similar approval from county staff and the county’s planning commission, both of which previously gave their recommendations in favor of the plan. As was noted repeatedly by land planner Brad Wester representing Costco, Collier County Planning Director Mike Bosi, and others, the land in question has been slotted for commercial development for decades, since the Hacienda Lakes PUD was established in 1989, and the parcel sits at a major intersection.  

Dozens of local residents packed the commission chambers, many wearing yellow “No Costco” tee shirts, and 60 signed up to have their say before the governing board. At three minutes per speaker, that translated to over three hours of public commentafter the petitioner laid out the case for the project – and then returned with members of the development team to the podium to offer rebuttals to some of the points made by the opposing speakers. Some members of the public ceded their time to others, so there were not 60 individual speakers. 

Some of the anti-Costco speakers given additional time to speak included Frank Cipolla, who has led opposition to the project and promised legal action if the plan goes forward, calling it “idiotic,” and Milton Spokojny, who argued that Commissioner Rick LoCastro, as a Costco member, should be disqualified from casting a vote on the project, which the county attorney quickly shot down. Jack Yazinski, a retired land use attorney and judge, finished his 27-minute presentation with the quote “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”  

Commissioners, particularly LoCastro, were at pains to state that the Costco approval had not been a “rush to judgment,” as opponents claimed, but had been given more scrutiny than one would expect for a similar plan.  

With the center going up on land already zoned for such use, residents, including land use attorneys and a chemical engineer, found various arguments against the proposal. One major point of contention was the requested waiver of the minimum 500-foot separation between gas stations called for by the land development code, with Costco’s proposal putting the center’s gas operation within 132 feet of the nearby 7-11 gas station.  

On two additional points of contention, Wester and his team pointed out there would be “no monument or pole signs,” and light in the parking lot, which was a concern, would be “0.0” foot candles at the rear of the property facing the residential area. Residents speaking against the proposal also raised the specter of gas tank explosions, although the developer had previously touted their “state-of-the-art” system for maintaining safety in fueling operations.  

A number of the speakers expressed that they, too, were Costco members, and had no animosity toward the retail giant – as long as it was located somewhere else. For residents of Marco Island, the new Costco location would cut in half the time to reach the nirvana of cheap gas and $5 rotisserie chickens that Costco represents. From the Marco Chamber of Commerce, Google Maps shows the time to the new location as 19 minutes, versus 36 minutes to the current Costco in North Naples.  

The Costco issue was not heard until four hours into the commission meeting and stretched on for another five hours between the presentation, commissioners’ remarks, public comment, and more staff and petitioners’ clarifications. It consisted of two separate questions, requiring individual votes – needing a simple majority for the gas station waiver, and a supermajority for what the meeting agenda referred to as “insubstantial” changes to the Hacienda Lakes PUD, or planned unit development. As both votes were unanimous in favor of Costco, the point was moot, and the voting was brief and uneventful.  

Earlier, Chairman Burt Saunders cautioned members of the public that applause and vocal outpourings of support would not be allowed, in the interest of getting through the meeting’s lengthy agenda.  

There will be additional hoops to jump through for the development team. According to Jamie Cook, Collier County’s director of development, the site plan is currently undergoing its second review, and “there will be at least one more.” But no one should bet against Costco rising next to Physician’s Regional Hospital on Collier Blvd.