Longtime resident Jon Kanas said the city is bypassing usual development safeguards in a desperate attempt to lure retail giant Costco into Longmont.
“We have an exceedingly strong community and an exceedingly strong economy,” Kanas said. “I just think it is unnecessary and inappropriate for the city to give my tax dollars … for a project of this size.”
“If we were some community out in the plains and going through some sort of population loss and our primary industry was gone, a project the size of Costco would be beneficial,” Kanas said. “But we are not in that situation here.”
Kanas has lived in Longmont since 1986 and been behind anti-growth measures in the city. He is also a member of Residents and Workers for a Safe Longmont, which filed a lawsuit this week asking a judge to quash the city’s conditional approval of the Costco development.
The lawsuit, filed in Boulder District Court, names the city of Longmont as defendant and asks a judge to declare that the city acted arbitrarily and abused its discretion in conditionally approving the site plan for Costco. The suit also asks the judge to declare the city’s decision “unlawful, null and void …” according to the filing.
Spokeswoman Ally Levise said today that the city of Longmont does not comment on pending litigation. Costco declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said that last year the city of Longmont entered into partnership with Golden Farm LLP and Aggregate Industries for the construction and operation of the Costco. The Costco would be built near the intersection of Ken Pratt Boulevard and South Martin Street.
On Feb. 14, 2022, the city’s Planning and Development Services Department issued a conditional approval of the Costco site plan.
The approval was based on a finding that the activities set in the Costco site plan were permitted uses under Longmont’s municipal code and other land use amendments, the lawsuit states.
The site plan violates code requirements to minimize the visual impact of parked cars and trucks through the use of plantings, earth berms or screenwalls, the lawsuit states.
The site plan also violates other requirements including the ‘integration of high-density residential uses … to increase live-work opportunities, expand housing options within the city and leverage planned transit enhancements along Colo. 119/Ken Pratt Boulevard,’” the lawsuit states.
Longmont Planning agreed to some “administrative modifications” including reducing landscaping and landscape planting spacing requirements, restrictions on tree planting, and an increase in the maximum allowed number of off-street parking spaces for the retail use from 657 spaces to 773 spaces, the lawsuit states.
A city staff report states that Costco will generate $4.06 million in the first full year of operation, and at least 25.9% of that revenue would come from the “cannibalization” of existing Longmont retailers. The city would still get over $3 million in new net sales taxes annually, the report states.
The $10.6 million in incentives to lure Costco to Longmont will be recovered in less than four years, the staff report states.
However, the Costco project has been waved through without a proper review that could reveal unforeseen problems with the development, Kanas said.
“I strongly object to the manner of which this project has been approved without being submitted, at least, to the Planning and Zoning Commission,” he said. “If a company is coming to your town based on nothing but tax incentives, that makes me a little suspicious.”
