Oswego plan commissioners reject gas station, restaurant plans

Voicing concerns about traffic circulation and other issues, Oswego planning and zoning commissioners unanimously rejected plans for a gas station and quick service restaurant at Plainfield and Woolley roads.

Several neighbors also voiced their opposition to the project at the Aug. 7 meeting. Village trustees will now review the plans.

The project is proposed for 3.47 acres at the northern corner of Plainfield and Woolley roads, across the street from the Oswegoland Park District’s Prairie Point Community Park.

The development would include a gas station and a one-story, 7,000-square-foot building that would contain a convenience store, quick-service restaurant, Scooter’s Coffee drive-thru establishment and a video gaming area.

The property is zoned for business. The intersection of Woolley and Plainfield roads is the main entrance into Prairie Point Community Park.

Resident Lisa Ladewski said she was concerned about the additional traffic and noise the development would generate along with the impact on the nearby park.

“Our community’s strength lies in its family-oriented atmosphere and accessible green spaces,” Ladewski said in addressing plan commissioners during a public hearing on the project.

“Developing gas stations and quick service restaurants here would undermine these values and diminish the quality of our neighborhood,” she said.

Other residents voiced similar concerns.

“This location is in direct view of multiple neighborhoods, a a major public park and multiple schools, places that should be protected as safe, healthy and community centered spaces,” resident Charles Rook told commissioners. “I believe there’s already enough gas stations in the vicinity.”

Rook also was concerned about the potential for fuel spills, soil contamination and increased traffic. Traffic signals at the increasingly busy intersection of Plainfield and Woolley roads were installed last year.

Commissioner Lisa Hillman voiced concerns the development would only add to traffic congestion in the area.

“I’m trying to comprehend how it’s all going to work with all that traffic flow that’s already there,” she said.

She also was concerned the project would have a negative impact on the village’s attempt to improve the area’s walkability.

“My fear is that we’re going to see some catastrophic accidents by having this gas station at that corner and by adding a monument sign that’s going to potentially decrease the visibility of people walking and trying to cross that intersection there,” Hillman said.

Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Charlie Pajor said he had concerns about the traffic circulation within the site.

“It just seems like an awful lot of conflicting intense uses,” he said. “If it were just a gas station with the usual convenience store, that’s one thing. But when you put the quick serve restaurant in and the Scooters drive-thru, you’ve got a lot of different people going a lot of different ways for short periods of time or longer periods of time. Quick service restaurants are quick service. But if you’re going to sit in and eat, you’re going to be there a while.”