San José District 1 Leadership Group
The District 1 Leadership Group (D1LG) represents more than 30 neighborhoods and community based organiza@ons in San Jose District 1 and provides a forum for the ongoing development of our community and its residents, and advocates for district interests with our council member and the City of San José.
The Honorable MaL Mahan, Mayor of San José
and Members of the City Council
San José Planning Department
200 East Santa Clara Street, San José CA 95113
October 11, 2024
Subject: Unresolved Issues with the Proposed Westgate West Costco Retail Warehouse Project, CP21-022.
The District 1 Leadership Group (D1LG) is wri@ng to express our concerns with several unresolved issues with the proposed Westgate West Costco retail warehouse project, CP21-022.
These issues nega@vely affect the students, residents, and businesses in the District 1 community. D1LG wants to ensure the Council is informed and aware of these issues prior to the Council vote on the project on October 22nd.
The unresolved issues include the following:
• Risk to Prospect High School students - Traffic danger to the 1,400 Prospect High School students from the 11,000 cars trips a day / 4M trips a year that Costco's own studies say will result from the store being built. Students must walk, bike, and drive through and by the proposed Costco Site and through the major Lawrence Expressway & Prospect Road intersec@on. There were 4 student / car accidents in that intersec@on in the past year under exis@ng condi@ons. Proposed changes to the Lawrence & Prospect intersec@on, and Costco's proposal to pay for half of those improvements are welcome, but not sufficient. The intersec@on will s@ll have through right turn lanes on 2 corners and too-small traffic islands for the volume of Prospect High School student pedestrians. • Risk to Country Lane Elementary students - Failing to address danger from neighborhood cut-through traffic to the students and parents walking their children to school at the nearby Country Lane Elementary school. Costco did not study cut-through traffic or pedestrian dangers at all. Graves Ave abuts the Costco site and leads into the Country Lane Neighborhood. Costco's proposal to close one of two driveways from Graves Ave into the site is welcome, but not sufficient. Both driveways must be closed to customer and delivery truck traffic to ensure no cut-through traffic. • Incomplete traffic study - Not taking into account traffic level of service (LOS) measures when the traffic study submiLed to the Planning Commission clearly stated there are 6 intersec@ons - including the main one between the site and Prospect High School - that
will all suffer LOS "adverse effects" from the addi@onal traffic Costco will bring. Dangers include turning traffic s@cking out in the fast lane of the 50-mph speed limit Lawrence Expressway that will result in swerving cars, as well as slowing down the speed and throughput of the Expressway through the whole day while Costco is open. • Noise impact - Failing to significantly address nuisance noise from forklig back up beepers, trash compactors, delivery vehicles, and other opera@onal noise 358 days a year that will disturb the quiet enjoyment of adjacent neighbors. Costco's proposal to slightly increase the height of a separa@on wall and add a loading dock roof are welcome changes, but are insufficient.
• Inadequate parking - Knowingly proposing insufficient parking at the site, demonstrated by Costco building a smaller Warehouse store on a much larger site in Napa that has 300 more parking spaces. This proposal has the least amount of dedicated parking of area Costcos. Costco is also trying to include all the parking in Westgate West as being available to Costco. There are many other businesses in Westgate West that would no doubt take issue with that asser@on.
All these unresolved issues with the proposed Costco retail warehouse enterprise leave the community with concerns and uncertainty that they will not be addressed and resolved prior to the Council vote on the project. This project affects the quality of life in the community. The purpose of this memo is to make certain that the Council is informed and aware of these issues and can make decisions that factor in the community’s concerns.
Steve Ling
Chair, District 1 Leadership Group