PENFIELD, N.Y. — A full house showed up to say no to Costco at the Penfield Town Planning Board meeting on Thursday night.

Jon Getz represents a group called Preserve Penfield. “Everybody had a common idea, which is let’s make sure the town understands our community is not the right fit for this project,” Getz said.

Representatives for the developer went over the details of the project. They say they plan to create mixed use development along Route 250 that would include a Costco, apartments and other retail and commercial spaces.

Many people who packed the town hall had problems with the plan.

One person brought up projected statistics to the board. He says almost 5,000 people would visit the Costco each day, which would only increase already heavy traffic.

“At 250 and 441 about 14,000 cars go by there a day, so if you’re multiplying that against the number I just provided that’s a 32% increase in traffic for one store, not even counting all the other buildings they were mentioning,” he said.

Others had environmental concerns, fearing it would get rid of green space and pollute the area.

“No one wants to replace the view of stars with light pollution or the noise of crickets with the sound of tankers. The stillness, the quiet, the beauty that surrounds our neighborhood will all be a memory and so will these residents,” one person said.

The group Preserve Penfield has started a petition that’s got almost 2,000 signatures so far against the project. They’ve planted yard signs across Penfield to show their message.

The developer’s reps say they will listen to what the public has to say and the next step is making a new sketch plan memo that will be the final application to the board.

The Planning Board says this is just the sketch plan and no action has been taken yet.

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