For decades Elgin officials have resisted anything other than office space being built in the area of Capital Street and Alft Lane, but that may be changing.
With the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changing the office building market, the city may be more open to the idea of a gas station being built on the vacant 3.7-acre parcel.
A proposal to build a QuikTrip gas station and convenience store at 1700 Randall Road was endorsed by city staff and won the unanimous backing Monday of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Final say resides with the Elgin City Council.
“From staff’s standpoint, we feel this is as good of a development as this site can get,” Senior Planner Damir Latinovic said.
QuikTrip Corp.’s plan is to constuct a new gas station with 10 double-sided fueling islands and a 5,300-square-foot convenience store, Latinovic said. Diesel fuel will not be sold but the business will be able to tap into the market resulting from about 42,000 vehicles using that stretch of Randall Road daily, he said.
The property is part of the Westfield Business Park Subdivision, which was annexed into the city and platted in 1988. Under the 1983 Comprehensive Plan, the site was earmarked for office, research, and industrial uses, according to Latinovic.
Sixteen years ago, Elgin changed the zoning to allow for some commercial uses. However, the site was never developed.
Elgin staff is open to the idea because of changes in the office space market, Latinovic said.
“What we have seen is that the pandemic has really (made it) tough to fill any available office space within the suburban office market, in particular aging properties,” he said.
While a medical office and a surgical center were built over the last few years on Randall Road, “there hasn’t been a lot of demand” for office or medical buildings, Latinovic said. Based on the market, the property may be better suited for something other than office use, he said.
Because traffic congestion on Capital Street and Alft Lane was a concern, QuikTrip hired Kenig Lindgren O’Hara & Aboona Inc. to do a traffic study. It showed that were the station built, 217 new trips would be generated during the morning rush hour and 171 during the evening rush, Latinovic said.
To handle the additional traffic, QuikTrip has agreed to only provide right-in/right-out access on Alft Lane and to build a median to prevent left turns, he said. There will be a full entrance/exit on Capital Street, he said. The property fronts Randall Road but doesn’t have access to the busy roadway.
Additionally, the Kane County Division of Transportation is in the planning stages of making traffic improvements to the Randall Road corridor from Route 72 to Big Timber Road, Latinovic said. Improvements to the Randall Road and Interstate 90 interchange, which will include a right-turn lane onto Alft Lane, will help with traffic congestion and flow, he said.
Elgin has already made improvements to Alft Lane by adding dual left-turn lanes, which helped alleviate some of the congestion, said Andrew Bowen, a traffic engineer with KLOA.
The surrounding roadways, including Randall Road, can accommodate the additional traffic, Latinovic said.
The study “has been under scrutiny. We’ve been going back and forth with them (the city) to ensure this site will work well with the surrounding roadway network,” Bowen said.
Elgin attorney Richard “Bud” Heimberg, who represented QuikTrip at the meeting, said convenience food stores and gas stations are allowed under the revised permitted use for that site.
Beyond that, the city only collects about $11,800 in annual property tax from the land right now. With a gas station built on it, Elgin could stand to gain about $250,000 in new real estate taxes, motor fuel taxes and sales taxes from the convenience store, he said.
“The value to the city is significant,” Heimberg said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
