MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The highly anticipated arrival of membership retailer Costco has been a hot topic lately in Mid-Michigan, and many Meridian Township residents have voiced their concerns to the Township Board.

After multiple meetings with public input, Meridian Township and East Lansing have now come up with a tentative agreement, which Township Manager Frank Walsh says addresses many of the residents concerns.

“We received a lot of input from the residents," said Walsh. "We've gone out of our way to protect the adjacent neighborhood.”

To protect the neighborhood adjacent to the site, the Board added a clause to make sure that 33 of the 66 acres bordering the neighborhood will remain a natural area.

"That'll be etched in stone, absolutely," said Walsh.

Some of the other provisions include a limit of 1 million dollars in Brownfield tax credits, any improvements to Park Lake Road will be paid by Costco, the contract was extended to bring more revenue to Meridian, deliveries cannot come in before 6:00 a.m., and Meridian Township will also have final site plan approval.

“We really got everything we wanted in the deal, and we got great cooperation from East Lansing,” said Walsh.

However another concern expressed by some Board members is the possibility of Costco appealing their taxable value using the "Dark Stores" theory, which is currently not mentioned in the agreement.

“We really don't want to get that in the agreement, because we don't want to treat them differently than we treat other businesses here," said Walsh.

There is currently legislation going through the State Senate about this issue. Regardless of what happens with the legislation, Costco and other retailers always have the right to appeal. The legislation just prevents the Tax Tribunal from using the "Dark Stores" method in the appraisal. However, until the legislation passes, the "Dark Stores" theory could still be applied in an appeal.

"That doesn't put them on any special footing," said Walsh. "What it does is allow Costco to have the same footing and the same parameters that any other big box store has in the township.”

Walsh says the agreement is beneficial for all parties, and will also bring 220-250 jobs to the area. The Township Board will make a decision on this agreement at their next meeting on July 5. If passed, negotiations will continue between Costco and East Lansing.