Customers wait in line to enter a Costco store on March 14, 2020, in Novato, Calif.

At a Tuesday meeting, Novato’s City Council greenlit a contentious Costco gas station in the city’s Vintage Oaks Shopping Center. The council approved the project despite a local ban on new gas stations and intense opposition from local environmentalists. 

The project has spurred blowback since it was initially approved in March 2021, when the city approved a use permit for the wholesale giant to build the gas station. A subsequent lawsuit halted construction but ultimately couldn’t block the pumps.

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The following year, in October 2022, Novato banned any new gas stations from taking root in the city, although the Marin County city is not interpreting the ban as applying to the new Costco gas station because the project was first approved prior to the ban.

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