Collier County approves Costco PUD change and 500-foot gas-pump waiver after hours of public comment

Collier County commissioners on Wednesday approved two companion measures that clear the way for a Costco warehouse and a membership-only fueling facility at the southeast corner of Collier Boulevard and Rattlesnake Hammock Road.

The board voted unanimously to grant an Administrative Separation Waiver (ASW) from the county's 500-foot separation requirement for facilities with fuel pumps and to approve an insubstantial change to the Hacienda Lakes mixed-use PUD (ordinance 11-41) that allows deviations for glazing, facade massing, light pole heights, loading spaces, interior landscaping and signage. Commissioners added a condition that any future increase beyond the fueling positions authorized by this approval must return to the Board of County Commissioners for review.

Brad Wester, vice president of land use for Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Debonau, described the proposal as a 156,866-square-foot Costco warehouse on a roughly 25.86-acre commercial tract and said the proposed gas pod would be approximately 132 feet from the lot line of an existing convenience station. Wester told commissioners the proposed site complies with the MPUD's activity-center designation, offers enhanced landscape buffers and is designed with one-way fueling circulation, substantial queuing and modern leak-detection and vapor-recovery systems.

"The requested waivers address orientation and layout; they are not about permitting a new use," Wester said during the presentation, adding that the project is under 50% of the PUD's allocated commercial square footage.

County planning director Mike Bozzi told commissioners the PDI requires a supermajority and the ASW a simple majority. Staff recommended approval of both petitions and said the planning commission recommended the PDI unanimously and approved the ASW 4-1.

Public comment took the better part of the afternoon. Dozens of residents and technical experts said the corner is the wrong place for another high-capacity fueling operation. Common concerns included traffic and queuing on Rattlesnake Hammock Road, the risk to emergency access at nearby Physicians Regional Hospital, possible increases in flooding due to insufficient on-site stormwater detention, and procedural complaints about prior hearings and notice. Roy Martin, a chemical engineer, presented a technical stormwater analysis and said proposed detention and off-site discharges could overload downstream lakes in a major storm.

"Waiving that mandate would be an egregious decision," said resident and attorney Barry Dinkinson, arguing that the 500-foot separation was adopted for safety and traffic reasons.

In rebuttal, Wester read a letter from the owner of Physicians Regional (CHS) stating the hospital is not opposed to the planned Costco development and that the easement agreement modified for access was acceptable to hospital leadership. Ryan Cunningham, the project's traffic consultant, described Costco-style fueling operations (one-way flow, deeper pump spacing and design to minimize on-site parking at pumps) and said project-level traffic studies and the MPUD's planned road and signal improvements keep the corridor under adopted capacity thresholds.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about delivery circulation, the number of fueling positions, emergency access, alternative power (generators), and stormwater permitting. Hall moved to approve the ASW and included a condition that any addition of 12 fueling positions beyond the permitted fueling positions would require return to the board; the motion passed unanimously. The board then approved the PDI insubstantial change unanimously. Staff and applicants emphasized that remaining technical reviews (site development plan, stormwater ERP and operational signal design) would proceed through county and South Florida Water Management District permitting before construction could begin.

Next steps for the project include completing outstanding county comments on the site development plan, addressing water-management district comments on ERP modifications and finalizing operational details for ingress, egress and the traffic signal. If the applicant seeks to expand fueling positions later, the board's condition requires another board-level review before any such expansion is permitted.