Costco Companies Inc., an Issaquah, Wash.-based membership warehouse chain, is seeking county approval to add about 16,000 square feet of floor space to its store on Spokanes North Side.


At a public hearing set for July 7, Costco will request a change of the conditions that originally were part of the zone reclassification to allow construction of the 117,000-square-foot warehouse store at 7619 N. Division.


Attempts to contact Costco were unsuccessful. However, Spokane County senior planner Francine Shaw says the companys plans call for adding about 13,000 square feet of retail floor space at the south end of the store and about 3,000 square feet of space to the tire-sales area on the west side of the building.


The expansion also would involve reworking some drainage swales on the property, Shaw says.


The county doesnt have a cost estimate for the project yet, but at a typical cost of $37 per square foot, a figure commonly used by county planners to estimate the cost of retail projects, the construction cost for the expansion would be about $592,000.


A change of conditions on a zone reclassification doesnt require a public hearing, but Shaw says Costco requested one because of the controversial nature of the project when it originally was proposed in the early 1990s.


Costco opened the store in 1992. It also operates a 120,000-square-foot store at 800 E. Third that it opened in 1983.