One sentence in your Jan. 29 opinion ("Not giving up on Costco") really stood out to me: "This isn't Palmdale, and Costco isn't Woolworth's." Woolworth's, founded in 1878, still operates today as Foot Locker. Falling on hard times—not until the 1960s after almost 80 years— they shed stores and reworked plans to stay in business.

Costco would be lucky for the comparison.

As a transplant from Palmdale for obvious reasons— crime, heat, wind, employment, education—there's one thing I miss: shopping centers that are well planned.

Have you ever tried to eat at Island's in Newbury Park? I'm convinced a 5-year-old designed that parking lot.

Why should Costco have to mitigate the traffic problems here? I've watched 12 years while traffic has been ignored and exacerbated by Amgen, home builders, shopping centers, office suites and business parks.

Kids can't walk around town safely anymore in all the traffic.

Try driving to work, picking kids up at school, dropping them off at practice, running to the post office or grabbing a bite to eat in Newbury Park.

My favorite proof that a preschooler in a sparsely populated part of Alaska plans our roads without ever setting foot here: When leaving the proposed Costco site and heading back over the bridge to Newbury, there are four lanes at Wendy/Old Conejo, the two outer lanes being turning lanes.

But you also have two middle lanes; both go straight but one becomes a forced right into Fresh and Easy.

We call this the "jerk lane." It's the lane where people know darn well they're not going to F&E, but take that lane anyway, floor it, and cut others off to get over before their lane runs out.

I actually let out a scream of joy when Costco withdrew its application.

Kudos to Costco for figuring out they were getting stuck with the tab for years of poor planning.

I'll be happy to keep driving 15 minutes to Westlake Village. I mean, c'mon, that way we can all spend more time in our upscale, fabulous T.O. cars, right? Jennifer Clark Newbury Park