LAGUNA NIGUEL : City OKs Opening of Costco Store

Although officials of a wholesale company haven’t met a legal requirement to provide land for a planned South County tollway, the City Council has given the company permission to open a warehouse-style store on Thursday.

Officials of Costco Wholesale Corp. had been concerned that the opening would be delayed because of unsettled negotiations with the Transportation Corridor Agency for a right-of-way for the planned San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, said Elizabeth Watson, a lawyer for Costco.

Rather than insisting that negotiations be complete, the City Council agreed to give Costco and Transportation Corridor Agency officials 60 days to complete a deal for the right-of-way. The decision cleared the way for the store to open because development permits require Costco to provide land for the tollway route.

Watson said the negotiations bogged down when the Transportation Corridor Agency approached Costco to purchase an additional 40 feet of land on either side of a 120-foot swath the firm had set aside for the tollway.

Costco officials have not accepted the proposal, fearing the land would be used as an alternate route for the tollway. Having a high-speed highway too close to the warehouse could hurt business, the officials said.

Transportation Corridor Agency officials asked Costco for the extra land late last year when the agency board of directors decided to study a second possible junction of the tollway with Interstate 5.

Original plans for a junction near Avery Parkway would wipe out many businesses alongside Interstate 5, so the possibility of a junction at Crown Valley Parkway near Cabot Road is being studied instead, said Donna Stubbs, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agency.

Construction of the $465-million tollway is set to begin next year. The highway will run between the Costa Mesa Freeway and San Juan Capistrano, roughly parallel to the San Diego Freeway and Interstate 5 south of the El Toro Y.