Oak Park’s village government staff has recommended that the village board block the proposal to build a large gas station on the village’s last large plot of open industrial real estate.
The staff encouraged the board to affirm a previous ruling by the Oak Park Plan Commission, which voted to block the permit applications related to plans to build a major gas station and convenience store at the long-vacant former Mohr concrete site along Harlem Avenue at the Eisenhower. The QuikTrip development wouldn’t be a good fit for the neighborhood, and denying the permit applications would “retain the site for a more compatible development,” staff wrote in supporting documents for the agenda item.
The board discussion was set for Sept. 30 after Journal press time.
“Approving the special use (is) inconsistent with the adjacent residential area and a day care facility,” staff wrote.
Oak Park’s village board will vote to either reject the proposal, approve the proposal or send the matter back to the plan commission.
Oklahoma-based QuikTrip is looking to redevelop the former H.J. Mohr & Sons 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 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 proposed site would have three entrances — one on Harlem Avenue, one on Garfield Street and one on 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.
The proposal was the subject of an Oak Park’s Plan Commission hearing in early September. Commissioners voted 7-2 to recommend that QuickTrip’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 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 Change.org petition asking village leaders to block the QuikTrip development has over 1,200 signatures.
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.
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 developed without the assistance of government, then it absolutely is appropriate.”