People packed the Meridian City Council meeting to give their opinion on the proposed 69-acre Costco development plan, the majority of people spoke out against the project.
This development would be a 69-acre project near the corner of Ten Mile Road and Chinden Boulevard and would include ten commercial lots, residential housing along with a new Costco.
People at the meeting made it known that they are not against Costco many of them spoke highly of the business, but people had a problem with this development because of the proximity of close by neighborhoods and a concern over traffic.
Costco representatives spoke to the council about their plans to expand both Ten Mile and Chinden into four-lane roads in an effort to ease the traffic concerns and said that construction would begin immediately if the plans were approved with Costco opening in 2020.
Helping that situation is a Sales Tax Anticipation Revenue Agreement or STAR with the Idaho Transportation Department where Costco would fund the improvements, however tax payers would have the burden of paying that back over time with interest.
There were people who were for the development citing good paying jobs and a boost to the local economy, a city official told us that of the people who wrote letters it was around eight for the development for every person who opposed it, most of the people who spoke out in opposition at the meeting live in nearby neighborhoods,
As of 10:30 p.m. this meeting was still going.
