Costco gas station expansion OK’d

Costco Wholesale on Tuesday won unanimous permission from the Eden Prairie City Council to nearly double the number of pumps at its gas station along Technology Drive.

Costco is proposing to add seven pumps – each pump serving two customers at a time – to a members-only station that currently has eight pumps and has been known to generate waiting lines.

The business would also enlarge the canopy above the pumps, build a brick structure for staff use, install an additional underground fuel tank and widen Costco’s eastern entrance to better accommodate cars and fuel trucks.

Julie Anderson of Barghausen Consulting Engineers Inc., who spoke on behalf of Costco at Tuesday’s public hearing, said the expansion will result in an overall minor increase in traffic at Costco but also reduce gas customers’ wait times by roughly 50 percent.

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Instead of being able to handle 16 customers at a time, the gas facility will be able to handle 30. She said the project would add a red/green light system to show customers which pumps are free, and new pumps would be spaced farther apart to help motorists maneuver.

There were no public comments at Tuesday’s meeting.

However, responding to Mayor Ron Case’s question about the size of the expansion, Costco representatives said it’s now common to build Costco fuel stations starting with 24 dispensing stations, as opposed to the 16 that currently exist with eight pumps in Eden Prairie.

Case also noted that he had publicly stated a year or more ago that it’s unlikely Eden Prairie will ever build another gas station. 

“My intent was (to say) we’ll never put a gasoline station into a neighborhood with residents all around it,” he explained Tuesday. “Partly because we’re built out; partly because of the changing dynamics of, ideally, 80 percent electric cars by 2040 – we’ll never have that need.”

Because of a controversial plan to build a 24-hour Holiday station near Pioneer Trail in southeast Eden Prairie, the council in December 2021 changed its zoning code to remove gas stations from the list of permitted land uses in the city’s “neighborhood commercial” zone.

Case said he doesn’t see any inconsistency between his earlier statement and approval of the Costco plan.

”This is an existing gas station, and we’re helping facilitate its viability,” he said. “There are no contiguous neighbors who are going to be upset with this project. It’s a benefit to Eden Prairie.”