Group documents attraction as battle rages

PLEASANTON — If at very first you don’t realize success, try out, try, consider again. With these willpower, a Pleasanton citizens group is attempting to toss another monkey wrench into Costco’s prepare to build a retail outlet in the metropolis.

The Pleasanton Citizens for Accountable Progress on Jan. 15 submitted a petition asking a point out appellate court to block the challenge, which an Alameda County decide dominated in November could commence, team member Matt Sullivan verified this week.

The team had submitted its next lawsuit final March to halt the strategy, alleging that an environmental influence report for the space where by Costco is slated to be designed was insufficient.

Costco wishes to open a new keep on a 40-acre website after occupied by Clorox close to Stoneridge Generate and the Interstate 680 and 580 interchange, in the Johnson Generate Financial Development Zone. The retail outlet would be 148,600 square toes and occur with a detached 20-pump fuel station.

Two lodges, a Springhill Suites and City Place Suites, and a drive-as a result of espresso store also have been authorized by the metropolis for the exact lot in the initial section of the job, alongside with Costco. Prepared for the 2nd section are general retail, potentially a brewpub, gym or health and fitness clubs, or dining places.

The group’s lawsuit zeroed in on the environmental influence report that the Metropolis Council accredited last February, questioning the air quality personal computer versions applied to estimate the greenhouse gasoline emissions of targeted traffic in the space. It also preserved that the environmental evaluate didn’t take a look at the cumulative effects of new growth in nearby Dublin and Pleasanton near the I-580/I-680 interchange, these kinds of as the more recent Workday headquarters on Stoneridge Mall Highway or the proposed IKEA project in Dublin.

But Alameda County Superior Court docket Choose Frank Roesch identified the environmental report “adequately regarded as the cumulative traffic and air top quality impacts” of 3 nearby Dublin projects.

“We respectfully disagree with the demo judge’s perspective that the closing EIR for the JDEDZ (Johnson Travel Financial Progress Zone) pretty viewed as the cumulative impacts on traffic and air good quality of the Costco job in tandem with the Ikea, Kaiser, ‘At Dublin’, and other large, traffic-producing development assignments approved in Dublin in the very last five yrs just after the EIR’s investigation was executed,” Sullivan mentioned in a assertion. The “At Dublin” undertaking proposed adding 566-models, but was rejected by the Dublin Town Council in July.

The allegations in final year’s lawsuit had been comparable to the just one it submitted in December 2016. The previously 1 mentioned there was insufficient information relating to the project’s air top quality influence on close by Stoneridge Apartment Advanced on Stoneridge Shopping mall Highway and that extra time was essential for community consideration of the job.

In reaction to the first lawsuit, the council in September 2018 rescinded the environmental report and came back again with a revised a person in February that contains extra air good quality assessment.