The Peoria Heights Village Board has given its go-ahead to Princeton-based Beck Oil to build a service station/convenience store/car wash on War Memorial Drive.
The Board unanimously approved both the site plan and a zoning special use at its Sept. 20 meeting, for all practical purposes the final hurdles to development of the high-traffic site. All that remains is a decision from the Illinois Department of Transportation on ingress-egress issues to the large property, which is bordered by War, Central, Paris and Illinois streets.
“We are ready to go,” Beck Oil President Bill Smith told the Heights Zoning Board last month. “The architectural studies are done, the contractors lined up.” Typically, it takes approximately seven months from first shovel in the ground to complete a project of this scope, he added.
The property was previously cleared and some preparatory on-site work already has begun. Beck’s will take up most of the block. Super Liquor currently occupies its northwest corner.
Smith said the main building will take up 8,500 square feet with 20 fueling positions outside, and will be accompanied by 150-foot- long, conveyor- system car wash. The gas station will be open 24 hours, the car wash from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Few neighborhood concerns were expressed at public meetings, with those being reserved to noise, lighting and environmental issues. The property will be “well-lit and safe,” promised Smith, though surrounding residences can largely be shielded from overhead lighting and undue noise disturbing their properties. A berm with trees will provide buffering.
Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Agency rules insist on double-walled fiberglass tanks, with leak sensors, though such protections permit “very little opportunity for issues,” said Smith.
“We are super excited to get going on this project,” he said. “We’re just pumped to be part of the Village.”