Oak Park’s plan commission voted to encourage the village board to block permit applications related to plans to build a major gas station at the long-vacant former Mohr concrete site along Harlem Avenue.
Oklahoma-based QuikTrip is looking to redevelop the former H.J. Mohr & Sons Co. Concrete site which sits along Maple Avenue, Harlem Avenue, Garfield Street and Lexington Street just south of the Eisenhower Expressway in Oak Park, as first reported by Wednesday Journal in July.
The proposal was the subject of Oak Park’s Plan Commission’s Thursday, Sept. 11 meeting, with commissioners voting 7-2 to recommend that QuikTrip’s applications for alley vacation, plat of subdivision and special use permission be denied at the end of a four-hour meeting. Ahead of the vote, commissioners had added conditions that would’ve implored the gas station to add solar panels to the building and eight electric vehicle charging stations to the site, but the proposal still failed to clear the commission.
The proposed site would include a 6,445 square foot convenience store building and 16 fueling positions. There would be no diesel fueling for trucks on the proposed site, according to the proposal documents.
The corporation would have to demolish all the existing structures on the site.
The proposed project would have three entrances — one on Harlem Avenue, one on Garfield Street and one Lexington Street.
In the proposal, QuikTrip would take over most of the former industrial site but would create a second lot that could be developed by another entity on the south end of the site.
“We’re excited to present QuikTrip to the community as a whole,” said Ali Burkhes, QuikTrip’s real estate project manager.
Ahead of the meeting, the village received 16 letters arguing against the planned development and commissioners heard from a large group of residents who opposed the gas station concept for a variety of reasons.
A new gas station on the site could worsen traffic on an already congested Harlem Avenue, suit the neighborhood poorly and conflict with Oak Park’s sustainability goals, critics argued.
“We strongly encourage you to reject the plan being considered tonight,” said Laura Derks, a member of the Oak Park Climate Action Network. “This plan conflicts with at least three of the Climate Ready Oak Park goals. This plan would add significantly to our greenhouse gas emissions and make our vision of a vibrant, green and resilient community much more challenging as climate change effects grow exponentially.”
A Change.org petition asking village leaders to block the proposed development has over 1,200 signatures.
Oak Park’s village board will have the final say on the future of the project in September or October, village staff said this week.
The old concrete plant has sat rusting since the Mohr company closed its doors in 2018 amid financial woes. Once home to one of the longest running businesses in Chicagoland, the vacant site is among the only large plots of land available for development in Oak Park.
Any sale and redevelopment of the property will happen in context of the foreclosure case involving KrohVan — the site’s last set of would-be developers — and the Mohr family.
Karen Richards, daughter of Dot and Bud Mohr, told Wednesday Journal that the case was still ongoing last month.
Last October, H.J. Mohr & Sons Co. filed a foreclosure suit against the developers, saying that KrohVan still owes on the mortgage loan agreement that matured last summer.
“The defendants have not paid the balance of the loan which matured on June 2, 2024,” the October filing said. “Current principal balance due on the note and mortgage is $4,026,830 plus interest, costs, advances for taxes, insurance and fees; and less any credits for payments received.”
H.J. Mohr & Sons Co. also claimed that the developers owed $157,241 in unpaid interest in their October foreclosure filing.
The parties had extended the mortgage’s maturity date twice. The developers were also hit with a Mechanic’s lien for more than $7,000 in unpaid contractor work last summer, according to the filing.
Prior to QuikTrip’s publicized interest, Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman told Wednesday Journal that she’d like to see the village consider purchasing the property.
“I as one elected official would be supportive of purchasing the land,” Scaman told Wednesday Journal in March. “When it’s a situation that the land would otherwise go on undeveloped without the assistance of government, then it absolutely is appropriate.”
