There are any number of failures piling up at the dilapidated Mohr Concrete site over on Harlem and Garfield.
They’ll culminate next week when QuikTrip, the owner of just humongous gas stations, makes its case to Oak Park’s Plan Commission/Zoning Board on why it should be allowed special-use variances to build a combined gas station and high end convenience store on the full block of the old concrete plant.
The commission will hear from both Naperville-based QuikTrip and, we’re certain, from neighbors of the long-abandoned site. A process will follow that will culminate with the village board making a final decision on this proposal.
It was just six weeks ago that Wednesday Journal broke the story that the mothership of all gas stations had begun the application process for zoning approval. QuikTrip has every right to seek permission to build on this site, which is certainly the single best development parcel in Oak Park. And Oak Park’s leaders also have every right to find a way to turn them away.
The thing is we lack confidence, if QuikTrip is denied, that any other better development is in the offing. Or that Oak Park’s fully tattered economic development department has the ability to fix this. Those same concerns apply to the top levels of village hall management and to the village board.
The Mohr Concrete opportunity has been hiding in plain site since the final cement truck rolled out of the plant some seven years ago. There were a handful of promising concepts since then where the defunct Oak Park Economic Development Corporation played a role in attracting and nurturing developers. Those proposals much better reflected what Oak Park needs from this site. Retail and commercial projects were pitched. Midrise (yes, we know, define midrise) apartments and even the lusted-after-for-decades hope for a mainline hotel were all pitched. There was even a sale of the property at one point. But that went south with a failed developer and the site went into foreclosure.
As recently as the spring election campaign, Oak Park President Vicki Scaman floated the idea that the village should buy the site to control its development. But concurrently a flailing economic development staff balled up a plan to create a new TIF district for the site.
And as the QuikTrip proposal surfaced, it appears there have not been intentional outreach efforts to neighbors of the site. Residential neighbors who lived with a concrete plant for a century deserve to be heard on what comes next. And while there have been absurd ideas floated such as the park district using the site for an indoor public pool, we also expect opposition to a super-sized gas station that would be a good fit along an interstate in Huntley or Minooka.