Company seeks convenience store location in Johnsburg

The Johnsburg Village Board is expected to vote at its Feb. 4 meeting on a zoning change and special use permit that could bring a new convenience store to town.

Those hoping to build a Kelley’s Market at the corner of Route 31 and Johnsburg Road said the business will not attract more traffic to the area and would bring both full- and part-time jobs with benefits to it.

Some residents of the adjacent Skyhawk neighborhood on the northwest corner of Route 31 and Johnsburg Road, however, have attended two Planning and Zoning Commission meetings and the Jan. 21 Village Board meeting to voice their opposition to the project.

“The residents' concerns, for many of them, is traffic at the intersection and the environmental impact of gas stations,” Village Manager Claudett Sofiakis said.

The first Planning and Zoning Commission discussion on the project was at its December meeting. The commission tabled the issue to its Jan. 8 meeting “to narrow down concerns and what can be done to minimize the concerns,” Sofiakis said.

The commission ultimately voted 5-1 to give its nod of approval to the project.

Owner Kelley Williams Company seeks a 6,000-square-foot convenience store with a Which Wich sandwich restaurant, gas and diesel fueling islands, and a drive-thru car wash.

“I have no problem with developing, but it should not be a 24-hour gas station.”

—  Heather Chappell, Johnsburg resident

“It is a convenience store with multiple offerings, ... and we do have fuel offering,” company President Clifton Morris told the Village Board.

If approved, the $9 million project could bring $500,000 to $600,000 in sales tax, $50,000 to $70,000 in property taxes and video gaming revenues to Johnsburg, Morris said.

The company also proposes the store would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I have no problem with developing, but it should not be a 24-hour gas station,” resident Heather Chappell said at the Village Board meeting. She also said residents already have difficultly pulling onto Johnsburg Road during peak times.

The roads in question are not controlled by the village, Sofiakis said. Johnsburg Road is controlled by McHenry County, and Route 31/Richmond Road is under the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Kelley Williams is proposing right-in, right-out access to the site off Route 31. On Johnsburg Road, the access would be off Hamlin Drive. The company would rebuild Hamlin, adding both right- and left-turn lanes onto the county road and space to stack 12 cars into those turning lanes.

“At the end of the day, we will improve [access] to Hamlin,” Morris said in an interview with the Northwest Herald.

There is a Marathon convenience store/gas station across the street now. The full access that store has to both roads would not be approved by regulators now, according to Kelley Williams representatives, who said the lighting there would not be either. Current lighting standards require lights that do not go beyond the property boundaries.

Of the two parcels in the proposal, one already is zoned for the convenience store. The board would need to rezone the second lot to match.