3-level Costco project planned for N. Seattle

Costco Wholesale has crafted plans for a three-story building on Aurora Avenue North that would be the warehouse retailer's first new Seattle store in more than 20 years.

If approved by city planners, the warehouse could open as early as fall 2004 at the southeast intersection of Aurora and North 125th Street, a site now home to a Lincoln Towing yard. It would have 149,816 square feet of retail space, most of it above two levels of parking.

The project would be Costco's first project within Seattle since its original store opened on Fourth Avenue South in 1983. It would be the company's first multistory warehouse in the Puget Sound region.

"We wanted to get a site as close to downtown Seattle on the North Side as we could," said Peter Kahn, a Costco real-estate development manager. "There's nowhere else between here and downtown that has the zoning, had parcels large enough and was available."

But members of the Haller Lake Community Club — an 81-year-old neighborhood group with a history of fending off unwanted development — have vowed to fight the project. The club says Costco would add too much traffic and doesn't fit in with the city's long-term, pedestrian-friendly plan for the area.

"We don't want it — there's just no doubt about it," said Haller Lake resident Melinda Jacobson, secretary of a committee formed in response to the Costco project. "The more we learn about it, the worse it becomes."

Costco officials have met with city planners about design review and plan to submit an application later this month, corporate counsel Bruce Coffey said. Company representatives have met with community groups.

The North Seattle store, just four miles from Costco's warehouse in Shoreline, no doubt would aim to siphon business from rival warehouse chain Sam's Club, which has a store a half-mile to the north.

The multistory format is growing popular because it allows big-box retailers to open in urban settings. Costco has such stores in New York, San Francisco, Japan and Taiwan.

But the store will be a tough sell to some residents of Haller Lake. Since the mid-1960s, residents have blocked a garbage-transfer station and bus barn and fought against a medical-waste incinerator at Northwest Hospital & Medical Center. The neighborhood was once dubbed "Holler Lake" because of its reputation for contesting projects it doesn't want.

Word of Costco's interest in North Seattle began to circulate in the fall, when Chairman Jeff Brotman mentioned during a University of Washington speech that the company was pursuing plans for a store on Aurora. Residents have raised concerns about possible problems, including drainage, shadows and noise from around-the-clock deliveries.

But the biggest issue is traffic. A state study last year found that on highly congested Aurora Avenue North, the intersection with 125th had a higher-than-average rate of severe accidents from 1999-2001.

A Krispy Kreme doughnut shop is opening next month at that intersection, which lies in the middle of a milelong stretch on Aurora that includes Home Depot, Lowe's, Kmart and Sam's Club. Haller Lake residents say that adding Costco will encourage more drivers to cut through their neighborhood.

"You've got Krispy Kreme traffic, plus our normal traffic, plus Costco," said David Nurney, chairman of the community group's Costco committee.

At a community meeting in January, residents grilled city planners about potential effects on traffic and asked how Costco fits in with a recent neighborhood plan that calls for pedestrian improvements and measures to curb noise, traffic and visual impact.

Alan Justad, spokesman for the city Department of Design, Construction and Land Use, said planners will take the neighborhood guidelines into account when evaluating Costco's application.

Costco's plans include a tire center and an outdoor parking area with landscaping and pedestrian pathways.

"We know there's a neighboring community, and we're concerned about how we can fit in with that community," Coffey said.

Kahn said the new store would create up to 300 jobs and considerable tax revenue: In 2001, he said, Costco's warehouses in King County produced an average of $820,000 in sales-tax proceeds for each city with a Costco.

"I would like to think that Costco could be the economic engine that could drive the revitalization of this neighborhood and help create the community that (residents) want," Kahn said.

Faye Garneau, executive director of the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association, said her group is pleased about Costco but wants to protect the neighborhood from traffic as much as possible.

"It's a real compliment that they want to come here," Garneau said. "Between them and Krispy Kreme, ... God knows, the city needs jobs, and they're going to be paying (business-and-occupation) taxes and collecting sales taxes."

Economic impacts aside, residents say questions remain about the project's effect on the neighborhood, such as whether the building's eastern wall — which Kahn said will be about 48 feet tall — will block views and keep some areas in perpetual darkness.

Residents across from the site have expressed concern about how more traffic might affect access to their mobile-home park.

Costco representatives will describe plans for the store at 7:30 p.m. April 16 at the Haller Lake Community Club, 12579 Densmore Ave. N.

While Nurney opposes the project, he joked that if nothing else, having Costco and Krispy Kreme in the neighborhood would be a boon for doughnut lovers.

"People can buy their doughnuts by the dozen or by the gross. We'll be fully represented."

Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718