Opposition to Wheeling gas station plan is mounting
Opponents of a plan to build a gas station, a convenience store and fast-food restaurants on Wheeling’s western edge have mobilized, planting yard signs in surrounding neighborhoods and launching a website.
Flyers have even appeared inside nearby apartment buildings.
According to plans presented to the village board last year, a Gas N Wash operation will be the centerpiece of the development proposed for the northeast corner of Hintz and Old Buffalo Grove roads.
The roughly 4-acre site is mostly vacant. A shuttered Tahoe Automotive service station that stands at the corner would be razed to make way for the new businesses. A shopping center that was elsewhere on the property was demolished in 2022.
The property adjoins the Mallard Lake Apartments complex and is across Old Buffalo Grove Road from the Brook Run apartment and townhouse complex in Arlington Heights. Single-family homes are across Hintz Road to the south.
The family-owned Gas N Wash company is behind the plan. Headquartered in Tinley Park, the company has more than 25 stores in Illinois, most in the Southwest suburbs.
Critics fear the proposed businesses will bring extra truck and car traffic to the area and unwanted noise and light, among other issues.
“It will light up the area like a Christmas tree,” said opponent Arlen Gould, a Wheeling Elementary School District 21 board member.
Gould and other critics have described the proposed development as a truck stop in flyers, emails and on their website. But that website also acknowledges the proposed development won’t have traditional truck stop features such as showers or laundry machines for drivers, or space for overnight semitrailer truck parking.
It would, however, have a convenience store and diesel-fuel pumps and be large enough to qualify as a truck stop under state law, which enables it to get a license for video gambling terminals.
Village President Pat Horcher insists the company isn’t planning a truck stop. He also noted many of the services Gas N Wash wants to offer — including food, liquor and gasoline sales — were available on the corner when the shopping center and gas station were operating.
Horcher called the complaints “a bunch of non-issues.”
“I think there’s a small group of people stirring up the public … and making it sound as dramatic as possible,” he said.
The Wheeling plan commission is expected to review the proposal when it meets May 22. That session is set for 6:30 p.m. at village hall, 2 Community Blvd.