People can weigh in on Tuesday night with their comments about the proposed incentives package the city staff has negotiated to attract Costco to build a 150,000-square-foot retail warehouse store inside Longmont.
Tuesday’s Longmont City Council agenda includes public hearings on several ordinances detailing the proposed city deal with Costco and the current owners of the 17-acre Costco site, with the owners of a 9-acre neighboring site the city plans to acquire for affordable-housing purposes, and with adjacent properties to be retained and eventually developed by those properties’ current or future owners.
All those properties are east of the existing Harvest Junction South retail and residential development in southeast Longmont, which is south of East Ken Pratt Boulevard.
City Council members unanimously voted their initial approval of those ordinances on Nov. 17. After Tuesday night’s public hearing, council is to vote whether to to give final approval of the measures.
The city staff’s Nov. 17 presentation of the plan, along with the council comments and votes, can be viewed in a recording of that night’s meeting, by linking to a video of that meeting on that night’s interactive agenda, at tinyurl.com/y6hxre7h , clicking on the video and then going to Item 12A on the agenda and clicking that, which will take the viewer to that part of the Nov. 17 meeting.
The agenda for this week’s 7 p.m. virtual Council meeting, including the public hearings on the ordinances that are part of the city’s Costco incentives package and the affordable-housing property purchases, can be viewed at tinyurl.com/y3zbwxdb. Mayor Brian Bagley will announce when people can begin calling in to participate in the hearing.
City staff has said the city’s package of incentives in the agreements, including Longmont’s property purchases and its share of the costs of having the infrastructure in place for Costco to begin building its store along with other city expenses, are currently estimated to total more than $12.99 million.
Staff said last month that its analysis of possible sales tax revenue from adding a Costco to the city’s tax base estimates the store would generate $4.06 million in its first full year of operation.
Longmont Economic Development Partnership Executive Director Jessica Erickson told council last month that Costco is projected to have 260 “direct” jobs there, with those workers making average annual wages of $58,352. She said Costco is expected to spend $38 million on capital expenses on its Longmont building and fueling station.
