Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Plans are moving forward for the relocation of the Costco gas station in Green Oak Township.

The Planning Commission met and recommended granting final approval to the township board for the proposed amendment to a PUD agreement for Costco, located at 6700 Whitmore Lake Road.

Plans have been thoroughly discussed at meetings over the past year. The approval was granted on what was said to basically be the one-year anniversary of Costco’s original submittal of plans.

Costco is acquiring land south of the existing warehouse property for the project where a new fuel facility and parking lot is planned. The land acquisition will allow for a larger and more efficient fueling operation. Current traffic patterns and consistent back-ups have caused unusually long wait times and traffic delays.

The new facility is expected to reduce that congestion, and will be primarily accessed by the west private road that connects Maltby Road to the Cosco warehouse. A memo states the new facility will provide wider bypass lanes between pumps, a greater number of fueling positions to service vehicles at peak times, longer queuing, and efficient ingress and egress along an internal drive lane.

There will be 20 fuel pumps, or 40 fuel dispensers, to increase capacity over the current facility.

Conditional approval was earlier granted by the board but was subject to an external traffic study being provided, and approved by the township and township planner. It was stated trip development would be less per the internal and external studies, meaning less traffic and less trips.

Commission Chair Cris Burkhalter stated the “east Costco entrance is already a mess and will be further a mess” but a traffic light can’t be put in there because it’s a certain distance away.

Planners stated conditions/requirements have been satisfied. There were said to be some very minor items on the engineering plan, but that Costco was in substantial compliance.

The motion passed, with Clerk Michael Sedlak, the township board representative, being the lone opposing vote.

Applicant Larry Dziurdzik with Costco Real Estate stated he believed they have satisfied all of the requirements discussed over the last four or five Planning Commission hearings and at the township board level. He said they’ll be looking at a resubmittal in a couple of weeks and “are ready to move ahead with the project and Costco is very excited”.

The existing facility will be kept in operation during construction.

More information and the traffic study can be viewed in the meeting packet. That link is provided.

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