Batavia council advances plan for Speedway station

Batavia city officials are poised to approve plans to build a Speedway gasoline station at Wilson Street and Kirk Road.

The council, meeting as a committee of the whole Tuesday, recommended the plan be approved.

It did not, however, recommend granting variances for two things: letting Speedway put merchandise such as mulch on an outer edge of the parking lot, and signs on two walls of the store building to advertise sales items.

Only one person spoke against the station. Steven Burrichter, who lives on nearby Woodland Hills Road, said having a gasoline station at the corner would be dangerous, and that it would result in more semitrailer traffic on Wilson.

Burrichter said children will be tempted to cross Kirk Road, a four-lane county highway, to go buy snacks at the station's store. Even though there will be a crosswalk and a walk signal, he said he worries children will disobey them.

The store would be on the northeast corner. There is nothing to the north of the site, several industrial buildings directly to the east, and Fermilab to the east and south.

The Batavia Apartments complex is on the northwest corner, and single-family houses on the southwest corner.

Burrichter suggested the city encourage someone to build something that would generate less traffic, such as a small office building.

He also criticized the station's plan to be open 24 hours a day, and asked that it be closed from 10 p.m. until morning. Several downtown Batavia gasoline stations close in the late evening, but the BP Amoco station on Randall Road is open all night.

Speedway will have to improve the intersection, including installing right-turn lanes on Kirk, a new traffic signal, and medians, to get the county's approval for access off Kirk.

The six-acre site was given to the city in 2010. It is selling it for $650,000, but the sale is contingent on the council approving the design.

The site was part of a farm, but the city estimates it hasn't been used in 60 years.