Special Use Permit for Circle K 24-Hour Gas Station, Convenience Store and Car Wash Quickly Passes Grayslake Planning & Zoning Board

The Grayslake Plan Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals last night voted 4-2 to grant a Special Use Permit for Circle K Gas Station to move forward on developing a 24-Hour convenience store, 10-pump gas station & canopy, 24-hour car wash, access road, underground fuel tanks and water retention pond. The new plan blacktops nearly the entire property, and adds an 80-foot access road on a neighboring bank-owned property.

A handful of Briargate residents were first notified of Circle K's plans on Tuesday, met with developers on Sunday and on Monday the Village Planning Board approved the Special Use permit for the massive project, leaving residents wondering if the Village has already decided the plan should move forward as developers have proposed.

The property, located on the southwest corner of Route 83 and Lake Street in north Grayslake, was formally a roadside bar called the "Hardware Store" but sat vacant for many years awaiting development. Much of the vacant lot is wooded with mature trees, with forest and wetlands, adjoining a wetland preserve and Briargate townhomes. Of special concern is a large wooded area of low marshy land along Lake Street that would be replaced with a driveway and blacktop. A 1993 satellite map of the area shows the low-lying woods along Lake Street have never been developed. The entire property, mostly blacktopped under the plan, slopes toward a protected wetland.

Board Member Ken Idstein, who voted for the plan, told the residents at the meeting: "People who live next to a busy highway should expect this kind of development."

Board Member Greg Koepen also voted for the plan and said, "I've thought for many years every time I drive by that location that it should be a gas station."

Concerns from residents regarding increased safety issues for their children and homes, environmental impacts on adjoining property and fears of decreased property values in a depressed real-estate market where dismissed by Commission Chairman Kurt Molek.

Molek supported the Special Use permit and said "since the Village approved the BP Gas Station across the street, they should also approve this gas station." He said storm water and drainage of oil, petrol and chemicals from the car wash would follow local laws for water run-off and would "not be an issue," and that all water run-off from the parking lot "would be self-contained on the property."

He said he was concerned about noise from the car wash dryer blowers near residents' homes 24-hours-a-day but believed new technology that the developers proposed would reduce noise. He said the gas station would "not draw people into the adjoining neighborhood" so residents did not need to worry about safety concerns.

The plan calls for expanding the footprint of a commercial-zoned property by more than 10 times the size of the last owner, but Board members said the large parking lot is allowed under Village code because it has a 3-5 foot deep water retention pond with berms.

In addition, the developer plans to build an 80-foot road on adjoining land that has been foreclosed upon and is bank-owned. Residents were concerned that the Circle K developers at the meeting did not make any mention of the new access road, which runs alongside homes in the Briargate subdivision, bringing Route 83 traffic closer to 24 adjoining Briargate homes.