The Meridian Township Board of Trustees will have to rezone the land that used to be the Four Winds Golf Course, at the corner of Park Lake Road and Saginaw Street, if Costco is to build a new store there.
The board discussed the possibility for the first time Tuesday.
Several board members say they are for a new Costco, but had reservations about where the money for the new store would come from.
"I heard a lot of good things about their proposal. It was only after an hour and a half that they mentioned that they're going for a Brownfield credit of millions of dollars. That I did not like," Trustee John Veenstra said.
Brownfield tax credits are generally given to help developers cover the cost of cleaning up contaminated land before beginning building. Veenstra said because the land used to be the Four Winds Golf Course, he has a hard time believing the land is contaminated, but he will hear the company out if it does decide to apply for the credit.
Trustee Milton Scales raised the same concern. But he said Costco would bring a lot of good things to Meridian Township as well.
"Positives would be more people that would be moving to Meridian Township to shop, the comforts that it brings other shoppers," Scales said. "I think there's some positives that go with the negatives, but I think overall the positives outweigh the negatives."
