Joliet eliminates alcohol sales at gas station next to mall – Shaw Local

Joliet has denied a liquor license to the Circle K Shell gas station near the Louis Joliet Mall, citing 63 police calls last year.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Mayor Terry D’Arcy’s recommendation to ban alcohol sales at the gas station at 3021 Plainfield Road.

The Circle K Shell license was denied because a new Speed ​​Trek gas station is being built nearby at 2665 Plainfield Road, which will sell both alcohol and offer video gambling.

Deputy Liquor Commissioner Kevin Kelley told the city council at a workshop meeting on Monday that the rejection of the Circle K Shell license was recommended because police had received “an extremely high volume of emergency calls.”

He said the station had generated 63 calls for service in the past 12 months.

The recommendation to deny the license came from D’Arcy, who also serves as the city’s liquor commissioner.

At Tuesday’s regular council meeting, the council voted unanimously against allowing alcohol sales at the Circle K Shell.

Jason Benoit, manager of Circle K Shell, attended the council’s voting meeting Tuesday but did not discuss the matter.

Benoit said after the meeting that he did not know there would be a recommendation to deny the liquor license.

He said the gas station will likely continue to fight for the license because customer inquiries about alcohol sales “are the No. 1 question we get every day.”

Benoit said he has been station chief since February and believes the frequency of calls to police has decreased.

“We have done our due diligence and tried to change the portrayal of the site,” he said.

The Circle K Shell is the only gas station in the immediate vicinity of the Louis Joliet Mall.

This will change with the construction of the Speed ​​Trek station at the eastern end of the business district around the shopping center.

Future neighbors of the Speed ​​Trek station opposed the project, citing traffic concerns and other potential problems that could come with a large gas station that would also provide fuel pumps for trucks and sell alcohol and offer video games.

But the council voted 9-0 in favor of the new gas station in August 2023.

An elderly couple who owned the property told the city council that they had been trying to sell the property for 17 years before the gas station project came along.