Planning Commission recommends conditional use permit for Costco fueling station at Jefferson Avenue

The Newport News Planning Commission on May 21 recommended approval, by a 9-0 vote, of a conditional use permit allowing a Costco Wholesale warehouse and an automobile gasoline supply station on a 20.23-acre portion of former Ferguson Enterprises property along Jefferson Avenue.

City planning staff told commissioners the site is within the M-1 Light Industrial zoning district, which allows a wholesale-retail warehouse by right but requires a conditional use permit for an automobile gasoline supply station. Staff reported the development would place a 163,000-square-foot Costco warehouse on about 20.23 acres of the overall 32.37-acre campus and would include a covered fueling area with 16 pumps (32 fueling positions) and on-site queuing for roughly 70 vehicles. The staff recommendation notes a traffic impact analysis prepared by Kittelson and Associates, concurrence from the Virginia Department of Transportation, and 24 conditions included in the staff report if the City Council approves the permit.

Why it matters: commissioners and staff framed the decision around traffic mitigation and visual screening. Planning staff and the applicant described multiple off-site improvements—for example, extending southbound left-turn storage on Jefferson Avenue and adding a left-turn lane and signal at the Boykin intersection—and on-site design measures including a required transitional buffer, a 16-foot landscape strip along Jefferson Avenue, a 12-foot strip along Bland Boulevard, and preservation where possible of existing mature trees. The Department of Engineering and Transportation is pursuing a Denbigh Boulevard interchange design that staff said will further address corridor traffic.

What was presented: City planner Sol (staff) summarized zoning, buffering, and the traffic review. Attorney Lindsay Carney, representing Costco, said Costco will purchase the land from Ferguson Enterprises and build a 163,000-square-foot warehouse with 828 parking spaces devoted to Costco customers; she confirmed the fueling station is part of the 20.23-acre parcel covered by the CUP and that two remaining parcels (about 12 acres) would be retained by Ferguson or sold in the future. Carney and project team members (Renee Rutherford, director of real estate for Costco; Chris Teasler, senior principal engineer with Kittelson and Associates; and Kestra Kelly on landscape) described the conceptual site plan, the expanded landscape plantings (trees with minimum 3.5-inch caliper and evergreens 7–8 feet at installation), and the off-site traffic mitigation elements including extended turn lanes, enhanced storage and tapers, a required traffic signal at the primary site entry, and pedestrian refuge improvements.

Commissioner input and public comment: Commissioners asked how on-site fueling queuing would be managed; staff and the applicant said fueling queuing would be contained on-site and not spill onto Bland Boulevard or Jefferson Avenue. Commissioner Williams repeatedly raised concerns about increased traffic on the two-lane approaches to the airport area and urged commitment to the Denbigh interchange design; Williams also praised the applicant for revisions since the work session. Carney acknowledged the traffic impacts and described the mitigation measures and VDOT concurrence. The public hearing included one speaker card; the applicant’s team answered commissioners’ questions during the hearing.

Formal action and next steps: A motion to recommend approval of conditional use permit CU2025 (staff reference CU2025Tech003/CU2025TAG0003 in the record) with the conditions recommended by staff passed unanimously. The Planning Commission record states the matter will be heard by City Council in June 2025. If Council approves, the listed site-plan review conditions, landscape plan approvals, and off-site improvements must be satisfied as part of the permitting and site-plan processes before issuance of certificates of occupancy.

Details and limits: Staff repeatedly referred commissioners to the staff report for the full list of conditions; the commission record mentions 24 conditions associated with the CUP. VDOT issued a concurrence letter on the traffic impact analysis; the Department of Engineering and Transportation reviewed the TIA and identified additional off-site improvements to be completed prior to occupancy. The CUP applies only to the 20.23-acre parcel proposed for redevelopment; two other parcels on the Ferguson campus were identified as surplus and not part of the CUP.

The Planning Commission’s recommendation now advances to City Council for final action. The staff report, traffic impact analysis, and the recommended conditions will be part of the council packet.