It’s not quick — or easy — to get a green light in Burr Ridge for QuikTrip.
Monday’s board meeting killed any immediate hope by the company of developing a gas station and convenience store in the village, with village leaders rejecting a proposed car and commercial truck refueling station despite a new plan from business leaders after an unsuccessful bid in June.
The board voted 6-0 to reject any modification of an earlier rejection of a development bid from the company. In short, despite some effort by QuikTrip to accommodate village concerns, the board of trustees didn’t give in.
The rejection followed bitter community sentiment, as residents near the proposed station at Kingery Highway and Route 83 in unincorporated DuPage County.
Village limits end at the eastern edge of the proposed development alongside a Thorntons gas station which was approved last year, despite some community pushback. Despite being located just outside the village’s boundaries, any commercial or residential developments count as subdivisions and are under village jurisdiction if built within 1.5 miles of village lines.
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The two stations would have differed insofar as the QuikTrip station would have accommodated commercial shipping trucks making it, in short, a truck stop, a new sort of gas station for the village.
Residents feared for noise and gas pollution as well as safety issues and potentially falling home prices. The proposal on Monday arrived with several accommodations to Burr Ridge concerns from earlier in the year, including adding traffic safety features while killing video gambling, a car wash and overnight parking. Still, residential pushback was fierce and the usually sparsely attended meeting was standing room only.
Monday’s rejection does not necessarily kill any future proposal for development by the company — or by a similar company — though Dr. Dajani Al-Khaled asked for the village to specifically reject any future development bids from QuikTrip.
Mayor Gary Grasso told the doctor “this is America,” and companies could come back to the board anytime they liked.
“The only ones who don’t come back are the dead children when a truck hits them,” said Dr. Al-Khaled.
Indeed, the proposed station would have been near a school in the District 180 school district an Colleen McCormack, a school board member and local Realtor, said the district had passed a resolution opposed to the QuikTrip proposal earlier in October over, in part, safety concerns.
“I don’t see that this is a good thing for our schools or our kids,” she said.
She added that, as a Realtor, truck stops can hurt home values.
She said as a realtor she’s seen home values drop just from the talk of a truck stop, and she worried residential crime could increase.
“You spoke to it earlier, safety is a big issue now,” she said. “I have had my car broken in to. My son has had his car broken in to and we weren’t being foolish.”
The proposed station would also be near a senior center, four places of worship and a food pantry that operates out of the Anne M. Jeans Elementary School facility — and residents also worried that any increase in traffic could congest the area, though property developers sought to downplay these fears.
Albert Smith, a real estate developer with QuikTrip said he projected the site to only capture trucks that happen to pass by the location, and he estimated that at fewer than 10 per hour.
“This is a much lower truck traffic store than we normally do,” he said.
Even so, Trustee Russ Smith said even a few trucks, idling as the filled up their engines, would disturb residents, and he cited the recent Sterigenics industrial air pollution crisis as cause for community concern over air quality.
“This is the wrong business for our area,” said Trustee Smith. “We have homes all around here. It is not fair for these people to have to sit there and listen to a fueling station and all the sounds and smells that come with it. I will vote no.”
The real estate developer pointed out the board could request further modifications — even including a ban on diesel sales and QuikTrip might be amenable to that — but the community was not swayed.
“No matter what you do, it’s still going to be a truck stop,” said Suzanne Akhras.
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.