WHEELING, Ill. (CBS) — A Chicago-area company wants to open a gas station in the northwest suburb of Wheeling, but some residents are putting on the brakes.
They worry about increased traffic congestion and environmental concerns.
“We have a couple hundred homes that are really going to be affected — between the apartments, single-family homes and condos,” Laurie Taylor said.
While driving through Wheeling, Taylor quickly expressed concern about what could become an abandoned Clark gas station at Old Buffalo Grove and Hintz roads, on the border with Arlington Heights. The proposed plans call for something that offers more than just a gas station.
“That’s really not necessary in this area,” she said.
Taylor has led a group of neighbors who have created a petition and posted yard signs asking the village of Wheeling to reconsider allowing Gas N Wash to move in.
“We have nice apartments. We have nice apartments, we have nice houses, we have good traffic flow,” Bryan Manning said. “There is no need to disturb it.”
Gas N wash is a local company that already operates more than twenty facilities, mainly in the southern and southwestern suburbs. The company now wants to build a gas station, a car wash, a supermarket and a drive-through on the site.
“This to me is an environmental concern,” Leslie Albrecht said.
At a Village Plan Commission meeting Wednesday evening, Alex Kugar, Gas N Wash’s vice president of finance, said, “We want to be a partner in every sense of the word.”
The company said at the meeting that the proposed Wheeling Gas N Wash location will not allow overnight parking for tractor-trailer trucks, have a reduced number of diesel pumps and will not offer other amenities preferred by truckers.
“They want showers. They want to do their laundry. They want truck parking. They want a restaurant. None of those amenities are here,” Kugar said. “This couldn’t be a worse setup to be called a ‘truck stop’; to be seen as one.”
But some who live near the proposed project say they aren’t looking for a new neighbor.
“It’s not conducive to a neighborhood environment,” Taylor said.
“Listen to the residents who live around here and their concerns,” Albrecht said.
Several Gas N Wash locations also have 24/7 gaming terminals. Licensing and approval for such accommodations is through the state of Illinois and was not discussed during Wednesday evening’s zoning board meeting.
The gas station’s future is now in the hands of the Wheeling Village Board, which will vote at an upcoming meeting.
Charlie de Mar
