Costco customers can finally pump gas from dormant pumps at the chain’s Colchester location.
The company, which WCAX first reported opened its pumps on Tuesday, is selling regular gas for $1.59 a gallon — 24 cents below the state average for May. To reduce traffic, the pumps are closed from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Long-time opponent, Skip Vallee, owner of the Maplefields gas station chain, including one nearby, claims that Costco opened the gas station in violation of a court order. Vallee was among the four northwestern Vermont gas distributors that settled a price gouging lawsuit last year for $1.5 million.
Although the pumps were built three years ago, Costco could not open the gas station until the Vermont Agency of Transportation completed traffic improvements on Mountain View Drive in Colchester. The agency had bundled that project together with a bigger traffic flow project on the Route 7/Route 2 corridor.
Those efforts have been stalled, however, by years of litigation from Vallee and others.
Costco filed an Act 250 permit amendment in 2018 to allow it to begin pumping gas during off-peak hours as the legal approvals for the traffic improvements wend their way through the courts. The Chittenden County Act 250 review panel granted the company permission to do so earlier this year.
But Vallee argued in a prepared statement released Thursday that the Colchester Costco had opened its gas pumps without obtaining a needed town permit.
“Costco is now thumbing its nose at safe traffic and its promise” to the Environmental Court to get that permit, said Vallee.
Vallee’s attorney, A.J. LaRosa, has filed a petition with the court requesting that it order the town of Colchester to tell Costco to cease operating the gas station until the Colchester Development Review Board weighs in on whether it needs the permit.
Costco had received approval from the town in 2012 to construct and build the gas station, and the company had filed an amendment to that permit earlier this year to align it with the revised Act 250 approval. The Colchester Development Review Board is set to review that permit amendment on June 10.
Costco attorney, Mark Hall, said that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
Efforts to reach Colchester zoning officials for comment were unsuccessful.
