Route 59 Near CarMax Getting New Gas Station, Car Wash And Restaurant If Joliet City Council Approves This

JOLIET, IL — Joliet's new deputy city manager Nolan Ming who grew up in Yorkville but spent the past several years employed in local government down South in Tennessee, but since his arrival in Joliet in August, he is jumping into action on the development side.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Ming will urge the Joliet City Council to approve a special use permit to allow an automobile service station and an accessory car wash at the northeast corner of Route 59 and Theodore Street.

According to Ming's memo, S & P RE LLC is requesting a special use permit to allow an automobile service station and an accessory car wash in the general business district at the northeast corner of Route 59 and Theodore Street.

The site is an undeveloped lot within Cobalt Commercial Subdivision, which was recorded in 2021 and contains a CarMax car dealership as the only developed use. Across Theodore Street south of the subdivision is the Pheasant Landing residential subdivision, which is zoned R-2, single-family residential.

Ming alerted the City Council that the petitioner proposes to develop the 2.9-acre site with a gas station, car wash, and drive-thru restaurant. The gas station and the car wash require approval of a special use permit while the restaurant is a permitted use in the B-3 general business district.

A future subdivision will be needed to create a separate lot for the restaurant building because the Zoning Ordinance only allows one main building per lot, Ming explained in his memo. The car wash is considered an accessory use to the gas station so both uses would be located on the same lot.

The gas station will consist of an approximately 4,150-square-foot building with a convenience store, a canopy with eight fuel pumps, and 16 parking stalls. The proposed car wash will consist of a 3,200-square-foot tunnel wash building and a vacuum station with 10 stalls. The gas station and car wash will be under the same ownership. The gas station will have approximately six total employees and the car wash will have two total employees.

Proposed hours of operation for the car wash are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., while the gas station will be open 24 hours.