FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — The city of Farmington Hills Planning Commission approved the proposal of a new Sheetz gas station and convenience store going in the area of 12 Mile and Middlebelt Road Thursday night. However, some residents say it’s an ill fit for the area and even protested the discussions before the meeting took place.
The potential Sheetz location would go in place at the site of the old Ginopolis restaurant.
People at the meeting protested the 24-hour convenience store in an area already full of gas stations and surrounded by residential homes.
“Your operation 24-hour gas station, liquor store, and a sit-down restaurant is something that you see on major highways, not in the middle of a neighborhood," Sharkey Haddad with the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce said.
Lloyd Banks founded the group Concerned Citizens Against Sheetz and says Farmington Hills is not a 24-hour town and doesn't need a 24-hour business.
"This could potentially be a loitering place and we don’t want that in our neighborhood," he said. “Crime, noise, they have a restaurant and a loud horn that’s in the backyards of subdivisions that people will hear this.”
Haddad says the majority of members within the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce are small business owners, hundreds of them gas station owners, including in Farmington Hills.
"This national chain store with multi-billion dollar operations is coming into Michigan, opening up in the same corner, intersection where we are at and we cannot compete with them. It’s like a David and Goliath kind of thing where they will be forced out of business," he says.
However, not everyone is opposed. Some residents expressed they wouldn't mind a place to get food at all hours of the night.
"This will provide a great benefit for our city, we have no 24-hour restaurants or convenience stores currently," Farmington Hills resident Steve Bridges said.
With the Planning Commission's approval, the decision now moves to City Council who will have to vote on final approval.
