Lehi asks American Fork to alter border for Costco store

AMERICAN FORK — Will Costco land in Lehi?

American Fork's City Council will vote at a 7:30 meeting tonight on a proposal to change the city border to accommodate the construction of a Costco store in Lehi.

Costco Wholesale Corp. has imposed a Feb. 1 deadline for the two cities to reach a compromise over the city border before it will proceed with the planned project.

Costco is thinking about building a store on a 40-acre plot west of 900 West in American Fork and north of State Street in Lehi.

Costco wants to build the store in Lehi — but the planned parking lot would be partly in American Fork. The retailer has made it clear that it is unwilling to develop in two communities.

In a 1998 agreement between the two cities, a city border would be established between 6800 West in the county or 900 West in American Fork.

Lehi is asking American Fork leaders to agree to a border change that would accommodate the demands of Costco.

More specifically, Lehi is requesting that a non-firm boundary change be implemented until the actual construction of the store is completed. Once the store is open, firm boundaries would be set by the two cities, Ron Foggin, Lehi finance director, said.

American Fork officials are concerned over road improvements that were made to facilitate the opening of The Meadows, a 140-acre shopping center in American Fork, located near the proposed Costco site.

American Fork officials believe Lehi should partly compensate American Fork for those expenses, which included the installation of traffic signals and improvements to railroad crossings.

Costco currently operates 449 warehouse stores worldwide including 333 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 63 in Canada, 25 in Mexico, 15 in the United Kingdom, five in Korea, five in Japan, and three in Taiwan, and has plans to open an additional 20 stores during 2005. There are six stores in Utah.