Costco Gasoline Fuel Station Transportation Characteristics

Exhibit A MEMORANDUM Date: May 23, 2013 Project #: I-10 To: Jennifer Murillo, Costco Wholesale Terry Odle, Mulvanny G2 Architecture From: Sonia Hennum, PTOE Project: Subject: Signal Hill Costco Gasoline Addition Costco Gasoline Fuel Station Transportation Characteristics As requested, (KAI) has reviewed the site layout, on site circulation, and traffic characteristics for the proposed Costco Gasoline fuel station addition to the existing Costco warehouse in Signal Hill, California. The proposed site plan for the Signal Hill Costco Gasoline addition is provided in Figure 1. KAI has worked with Costco and the development team to assist with transportation issues, on site circulation, and on-site operational needs as they relate to the proposed fuel station s design. As part of this work, KAI reviewed the proposed site plan for the location, circulation pattern, operations, and access to the fuel station. KAI works with Costco on site development projects throughout the United States and Canada, with a large majority of these projects focused in California. From all of this work, we are able to provide a breadth of understanding and information related to the circulation and operational needs of Costco Gasoline fuel stations and their interaction with Costco warehouses. COSTCO GASOLINE CHARACTERISTICS Costco Gasoline fuel stations function as ancillary uses to the Costco warehouse that shares their site. Typical operating hours for Costco Gasoline facilities are approximately from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekdays and 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekends. The fuel station will be closed on holidays when the warehouse is also closed. The fuel station will only be available for Costco members and will require a Costco membership card to activate the pumps for dispensing gasoline. Payment can only be made with credit or debit card and, unlike traditional gas/service station operations, there are no other automotive services (such as repairs or maintenance) or other type of sales (including food or sundries) associated with the Costco Gasoline facility. FILENAME: H:\PROJFILE\SIGNAL HILL COSTCO GAS\SIGNAL HILL COSTCO GASOLINE ADDITION.DOCX

May 23, 2013 Page 3 All Costco Gasoline facilities have a minimum of one attendant working at the gas station when it is open who is responsible for expediting members use of the fuel pumps, directing entering vehicles to open pump locations, and managing on-site queues from the pumps. A key consideration in the review of Costco Gasoline fuel stations is their function as an ancillary use for the Costco warehouse. Costco has invested significant resources into identifying the travel characteristics of their members to ensure site planning and development work is based upon the best possible data. Travel associated with Costco warehouses and fuel stations displays unique characteristics due to membership requirements and the nature of Costco sales (typically larger volume purchases and lower frequency visits than traditional retailers). These unique elements apply to the trip generation for Costco warehouses, Costco fuel stations, and the interaction of trips between the two. A key finding from the studies conducted at Costco facilities is that, while they can be busy during peak periods, the fuel stations themselves don t generate a significant number of new trips on their own since the station is an ancillary use to the warehouse. A significant proportion of the trips to and from Costco fuel stations are internal capture trips. Internal capture trips are those customers who patronize both the warehouse and the gasoline pumps during a single visit to the site. As such, although they account for a trip to both the warehouse and the fuel station, they only account for one overall vehicle trip to the site and on the surrounding transportation system. These fuel station trips are vehicles that are already coming to the site to shop at the existing Costco warehouse today but who, in the future, will also make a stop to purchase fuel. At some existing sites the proportion of these internal trips ranges as high as 75% (i.e., 75% of the vehicles using the fuel station are also shopping at the warehouse as their primary destination on site). The overall result of this travel characteristic is that the addition of a fuel station to an established existing Costco warehouse has a much smaller effect on increasing traffic to the site, traffic congestion on the site, and on the surrounding roadways than is commonly assumed. TRIP GENERATION ESTIMATE KAI maintains a database of traffic data and transportation characteristics for Costco Wholesale. The database contains transportation information such as trip generation, trip type percentages, and parking demand for Costco locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The database is updated and refined each time new Costco traffic counts or information become available to KAI. The Costco database was determined as the best source from which to develop the trip generation estimate for the Signal Hill Costco Gasoline addition project since it provides use-specific data that most accurately represents the anticipated traffic characteristics of the project.

May 23, 2013 Page 4 Trip Count Information The database currently has traffic information from numerous locations in large metropolitan areas of California (Bay Area, LA Area, and San Diego). Twenty-three sites were selected from the database in the development of the trip generation estimate for Signal Hill for a variety of reasons such as warehouse sales volume, fuel station size, and similar geographic market area and membership base. Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the representative sites and their respective peak hour trip generation (rounded to the nearest five vehicles per hour). Table 1 Trip Generation Characteristics of Representative Costco Gasoline Sites Location Fuel Station Size (fueling positions) Weekday PM Peak Hour Total Trip Ends Weekend Midday Peak Hour Total Trip Ends Antioch, CA 16 N/A 380 Burbank, CA 16 416 468 Carlsbad, CA 16 440 N/A City of Industry, CA 16 466 476 Fountain Valley, CA 16 467 464 Garden Grove, CA 16 N/A 442 Laguna Nigel HR, CA 16 N/A 502 Laguna Nigel, CA 16 N/A 440 Morena Blvd, CA 16 372 N/A Oxnard, CA 16 392 410 Rancho Del Ray, CA 16 414 N/A S San Diego, CA 16 362 N/A Simi Valley, CA 16 414 392 Vallejo, CA 16 N/A 440 Woodinville, WA 16 416 N/A Aurora Village, WA 16 414 N/A Santa Clara, CA 12 378 386 El Camino, CA 16 500 516 NE San Jose, CA 16 474 494 San Jose II, CA 16 430 466 Scottsdale, AZ 20 500 570 Tucson, AZ 20 340 440 Issaquah, WA 20 490 600 Average 430 460 An important trend seen from trip generation studies at these Costco Gasoline facilities is that trip generation is not necessarily directly related to the number of islands (or fueling positions) at a facility. Although the standard reference manual ITE Trip Generation currently reports trip generation for gasoline stations based on the independent variable of fueling positions, more recent transportation studies indicate that other variables besides the specific number of fueling pumps have a much larger influence on trip generation. As such, the profession is moving towards modifying this for the gasoline station land use codes and working on studies that include different independent variables. An ITE paper was just recently published in the June 2011 ITE Journal documenting a study

May 23, 2013 Page 5 completed by North Carolina State University confirming these methodologies. In particular for Costco Gasoline facilities, membership base (since they are member-only facilities), market area, and adjacent warehouse activity appear to have a much greater influence on the activity levels of the associated fuel stations than whether the facility is 12, 16, or 20 fueling positions (the three typical Costco models). As such, actual trip counts (as opposed to a trip rate per fueling positions) were used in developing an estimate for the Signal Hill Costco Gasoline addition. Trip Type Information In addition to traffic counts, it is also important to quantify trip type information when evaluating the characteristics of the fuel station traffic. The Costco database contains member survey information from multiple sites to establish specific trip type characteristics for the fuel station. The surveys were created and administered consistent with the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation reference guidelines and documented four different trip types for the fuel station traffic: net new trips, internal trip, pass-by trips, and diverted trips. The documented fuel station trip type information for Costco Gasoline stations is summarized in Table 2. Table 2 Costco Gasoline Trip Type Characteristics Trip Type Weekday PM Peak Hour Weekend Midday Peak Hour Internal Trips 34% 35% Pass-by/Diverted Trips 49% 45% Primary Trips 17% 20% Internal trips account for those members who patronize both the warehouse and the gasoline pumps during a single visit to the Costco site. As such, although they account for a trip to both the warehouse and the fuel station, they only account for one vehicle trip to the site and on the surrounding transportation system. Based on studies including surveys at Costco Gasoline stations and membership card transaction data, on average 34% of the members buying gas during the weekday p.m. peak hour and 35% of the members buying gas during the weekend midday peak hour are members whose main purpose to the site is to visit the Costco warehouse and who can be classified as an internal trip. Pass-by trips represent members (and trips) that are currently traveling on the surrounding street network for some other primary purpose (such as a trip from work to home) and stop into the site en route during their normal travel. As such, pass-by trips do not result in a net increase in traffic on the surrounding transportation system and, typically, their only effect occurs at the immediate intersections and site access driveways where they become turning movements. Diverted trips are similar to pass-by trips in that they are trips already on the surrounding transportation system and they stop into the site during their course of travel. They differ from pass-by trips in that they would

May 23, 2013 Page 6 not be on the roadways immediately adjacent to the site during their normal travel and, therefore, have to divert from a roadway further away to travel to the site. Although they may be a new trip on the roadways immediately adjacent to the site, they are not a new trip on the overall transportation system. Based on studies using surveys at Costco Gasoline fuel stations, on average 49% of the weekday p.m. peak hour trips and 45% of the weekend midday peak hour trips at Costco Gasoline fuel station can be classified as either pass-by or diverted trips. The breakdown between pass-by and diverted trips is dependent on the site location and surrounding transportation system. The combination of these trip types results in the fact that only approximately 20% of the peak hour trips to the Costco Gasoline fuel station can be considered actual net new trips on the overall transportation system. Resultant Trip Generation Estimate Taking the conservative average trip count of the two highest trip-generating locations (which also happen to be 5 island facilities Scottsdale and Issaquah) and combining that with the trip type characteristics seen at Costco Gasoline fuel station results in the overall trip generation estimate for the Norwalk Costco Gasoline facility as summarized in Table 3. Table 3 Costco Gasoline Trip Generation Estimate Weekday PM Peak Hour Trip Ends Weekend Midday Peak Hour Trip Ends In Out Total In Out Total Total Trips 215 215 430 230 230 460 Internal Trips (34%, 35%) (70) (70) (140) (80) (80) (160) Pass-by/Diverted Trips (49%, 45%) 105 105 210 100 100 200 Net New Trips 40 40 80 50 50 100 *Percent of external trips As can be seen from Table 3, the proposed Signal Hill Costco Gasoline fuel station is estimated to generate approximately 80 net new vehicle trips (or 40 vehicles) during the weekday p.m. peak hour and approximately 100 net new vehicle trips (or 50 vehicles) during the weekend midday peak hour.

May 23, 2013 Page 7 SITE CIRCULATION & QUEUING The proposed site plan has been developed to optimize traffic circulation to and within the site and to minimize impacts to existing operations within the center and on E Willow Street. Costco has incorporated the following design features into the fuel station to provide efficient circulation: The fuel station is one-way directional flow only (in this case from the west to the east) which simplifies vehicle paths and minimizes conflict points and congestion There is a pass-through lane provided on each side of each island to allow vehicles at the second pump to pull around vehicles at the first pump in front of them without having to wait for that vehicle to finish their purchase before both vehicles can clear the area The pass through lane also allows vehicles waiting in queue to pull around a vehicle in front of them at the second pump and up to the first pump without having to wait for that vehicle to clear KAI also evaluated the anticipated vehicle queuing at the proposed fuel station. The purpose of this evaluation was to ensure the site plan provides sufficient storage to accommodate the anticipated peak period queues within the fuel station area so they do not spill back or impact circulation elsewhere within the retail center parking field. KAI collected vehicle queue information and traffic counts from other existing Costco Gasoline sites with activity similar to that expected at the proposed Signal Hill location. Data was collected during the Saturday midday which is the known busiest time period for Costco Gasoline fuel station operations. Data was collected from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the following locations: Antioch, California Vallejo, California Scottsdale, Arizona Issaquah, Washington The observed queue lengths every 30 seconds during the weekend peak time period were documented for all four locations. From this data, average, 95 th percentile, and maximum queues were calculated for the peak hours. The results are summarized in Table 4. Table 4 Costco Gasoline Saturday Peak Vehicle Queues Peak Period Vehicle Queues* Location Average 95 th Percentile Maximum Observed Antioch, CA 5 10 15 Vallejo, CA 15 20 30 Scottsdale, AZ 37 42 44 Issaquah, WA 12 27 37 *Queues report are the total number of vehicles waiting behind the fuel pumps (not including those at the pumps themselves)

May 23, 2013 Page 8 Table 4 shows that the maximum queue observed behind the pumps at any of the four sites was 44 vehicles at the Scottsdale location. The largest 95th percentile queue observed was 42 vehicles. This means that for 95% of the peak period, the queues at all four locations were less than 42 vehicles. At three of the locations, the 95 th percentile queue was significantly less than 30 total vehicles. Figure 2 provides a graphic that shows the maximum queue length observed at any of the four locations (44 vehicles) overlaid on the proposed Signal Hill site plan. As can been seen from the figure, the maximum expected queue will be able to be contained within the fuel station area without any spill back or interference with other areas within the retail center parking. During all other time periods, the queuing at the fuel station will be less than shown in the figure. Based on the data collected from the four comparable sites, the maximum predicted queue length will be contained well within the queuing area of the fuel station and will not impede acceptable traffic flow or circulation within the existing site. Finally, as outlined previously, there will be a minimum of one trained attendant working at the gas station at all times when it is open who is responsible for expediting members use of the fuel pumps, directing entering vehicles to open pump locations, and managing on-site queues from the pumps. We trust this memorandum provides the information requested at this time related to our work with the site planning for the proposed Costco Gasoline fuel station addition in Signal Hill, California. We will continue to work with the development team on both on and off-site transportation issues as the project moves forward. If you have any question about this summary, or if you require additional information, please contact us at 208.338.2683 or shennum@kittelson.com.