A grassroots group is suing the city of Camarillo and Costco Wholesale over the construction of the warehouse store on West Ventura Boulevard.

Ventura County Citizens Against Mega Gas filed the lawsuit this spring, challenging the city’s approval of the Costco. The group is made up of Camarillo and county residents who sued after the City Council denied their appeal on the project in February, allowing the members-only store to move forward with its plans.

The development will be a 169,397-square-foot warehouse store and gas station on about 20 acres next to the Home Depot. The site is across from the Camarillo Airport.

The Costco will contain a food court, vision and hearing center, pharmacy, bakery, tire center, photo area and more than 4,000 products, including alcohol, according to the city. The retailer will also add 901 parking spaces and 16 double-sided gas pumps, allowing 32 vehicles to fuel up at once.

In Ventura County, Oxnard and Simi Valley have Costco stores. Another Costco store lies just over the county line in Westlake Village.

When Costco first submitted the project application in 2022, an analysis by the city determined that an estimated 36,650 Camarillo residents visited the Oxnard store, 12,710 residents visited the Westlake Village store and 6,260 residents visited the Simi Valley store that year.

What does the Costco lawsuit allege?

The court complaint is against the city of Camarillo and the City Council since it approved the project as well as against Costco, the permit holder.

The city approved the project after deciding that certain measures would reduce potential environmental impacts to a level that an environmental impact report wasn’t needed for the project.

The suit maintains that a complete environmental impact report was required for the project and asks the city to prepare the report and comply with the requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA.

Michelle Glueckert D’Anna, a city spokeswoman, said that the city and council members would not comment on pending litigation.

Under the approval guidelines for the project, Costco would pay for all litigation-related costs in defending the lawsuit, including the city’s attorney costs, according to D’Anna. The respondents have “strong arguments” that the project approval adhered to CEQA while considering the environmental effects of the Costco, she added.

What are the residents’ concerns?

Resident Joan Handzel has lived in the Springville community, close to the proposed development site, since 2017. She said she signed onto the lawsuit because she fears the pollution and traffic that a Costco may bring to her area.

“I hope that the environmental impact report will point out what deficiencies are in the Costco proposal and that no Costco will be built here,” she said.

Kristen Kessler, one of the members of the citizens’ group, has lived in east Ventura County for about eight years. An environmental and wildlife advocate and a member of the Ventura Audubon Society, she believes many species will be displaced and the city “seems to not be particularly concerned about that.”

The society also submitted a letter to the City Council in November 2023, taking issue with the proposed Costco development, stating that it was inadequate to rely on a 15-year-old environmental review to address current biological impacts.

The letter said that the development site is a foraging ground for red-tailed hawks and other raptors, and a habitat for about 10 different bird species, including special status species like western burrowing owls and horned larks.

“There’s a lot going on there in terms of wildlife, and I feel like that matters and it shouldn’t just be ignored,” Kessler said.

Two members of the opposition group are business owners in the area and own a local gas station, she confirmed. One of the parties signed the petition as “Hilu Gus Co., Inc.” and owns a Chevron in Camarillo.

“They have concerns that the Costco gas station is going to take away business from them,” Kessler said.

Longtime environmental activist Merrill Berge said that while Costco would pay into a countywide mitigation fund to offset the emissions that the project would generate primarily from the gas station, the payments currently only account for three years of emissions when the project would lead to emissions for many years to come.

Berge, a 23-year Camarillo resident, said the citizens’ group came together as a result of the Costco project.

“We all had our various concerns from different points of view,” Berge said.

Berge said it is the City Council’s call whether the project moves forward after a judgment is made on the petition, but an EIR would provide the community and the City Council with a basis for making that decision.

The next court hearing is a case management conference scheduled for June 14 with Judge Ronda McKaig at the Hall of Justice. The petitioners expect that the case will bring the real impacts of the Costco project to light.

Dua Anjum is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at dua.anjum@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Grassroots group fights building of Camarillo Costco