Livonia — The four-year battle between Sheetz and the city might be over after the city council, using clever procedural maneuvering and deft political timing, voted 4-3 to approve construction of a Sheetz Gas station at the southeast corner of Eight Mile and Newburgh, avoiding a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.
This vote took place a week after the same elected body voted to deny the new gas station under intense political pressure by locals who exploded in rage during public comments with threats against council members up for future reelection.
The initial denial appeared to be another rousing victory for a certain demographic of Livonia residents who fly into a rage at the announcement of any new development within the city limits. But the rejection of a proposed project where an empty former Rite Aid now sits decaying was met with explosive blowback by other residents.
For a seeming eternity, Livonia’s Boomers have fought hard to retain what they view as a “bedroom community.” So when a new business or development arrives looking to boost economic growth, and even slightly alter the city’s landscape, Boomers lose their collective minds, flow into council meetings like it’s a bathtub drain, and throw tantrums until they get what they want. That’s exactly what they did to Sheetz.
But this time, the geriatric pensioners ran up against a corporation with deep pockets and smart lawyers. They lost the thread with the rest of the residents of the city growing weary of yet another empty building or abandoned lot sitting empty and becoming a location for criminal activity.
Sheetz, a privately held Pennsylvania-based corporation, planted a flag in Michigan with their Romulus location near Detroit Metropolitan Airport and targeted Livonia and Farmington as their next areas of expansion. Preliminary discussions with Livonia led to Sheetz proposing a location on the southeast corner of Five Mile Road and Newburgh, and a variance was requested by the property owners in spring 2023; however, Livonia’s Planning Commission recommended denying that request, and the City Council passed an ordinance banning three gas stations at one intersection, exposing the city to a lawsuit over unconstitutional lawfare.
But no lawsuit ever occurred, and a minor mystery emerges at this point of the story. Attorneys for Sheetz have claimed that an unnamed individual on the city council, and possibly another city official, steered Sheetz toward the unused site at Eight Mile Road and Newburgh, where an abandoned Rite Aid building currently sits rotting.
During a May zoning-board hearing, Sheetz representative Alex Siwicki admitted the company had looked at several locations in the city but added, “We actually found this location through city staff.”
That small detail has created enormous legal leverage against the city, as Sheetz entered into cooperation with the property owner and moved ahead with variance requests and investment believing they had the city’s blessing to begin expansion.
The obvious takeaway is that the city and Sheetz wanted the company to expand into the area, avoid any adversarial litigation, and the Eight Mile site was a goodwill offering. But for Boomers wholly adverse to any slight alteration to the city’s aesthetics, it was only a matter of time before the crazies emerged from their paid-off cribs to cry like infants.
Fierce opposition ignited overnight, expressing fears over bright neon lights, an increase in traffic, an alleged increase in crime, and the possibility the earth might explode by putting a gas station at that exact corner.
But this saga has another level of intrigue. Sources involved in this struggle, who wish to remain anonymous, have claimed some of this outrage may also be slightly manufactured by another party adverse to the entrance of competition in the area: Chaldean gas station owners.
Livonia’s current gas stations aren’t exactly the best maintained businesses, and none of them can match the size and scope of services offered by Sheetz. The expansion presents an economic danger to Chaldean-owned businesses.
During multiple council and zoning board meetings, representatives and attorneys for the Chaldean Owners Group have been working in conjunction with residents, including alleged involvement with a lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court.
At this point, you might be thinking: “Jesus, all of this over one freaking gas station?” One lifelong residence quipped, “If I build a new shed in my backyard, will 30 bitchy Boomers in yellow shirts show up to protest it?”
During the original vote denying Sheetz, each council member voting “no” was already well aware their act was violating Sheetz constitutional rights and would likely trigger an expensive lawsuit the city would have no odds of winning. More ironic, the very group of Boomers hectoring for that lawsuit were the same voters outraged by the notion of higher taxes during an August millage vote for a new downtown center.
The irony: Cantankerous NIMBY Boomers won’t spend taxpayer money to redevelop an aging city but will aggressively spend the public’s money to save an empty dilapidated Rite Aid building.
The only hero in this ridiculous saga is Councilwoman Lynda Scheel. Soft-spoken and lacking political ambition, Scheel was a late addition to the council one year earlier to fill a vacant seat. Signaling her lack of desire for reelection, she has displayed a strong spine, making tough principled votes while giving political cover to the weak progressive members of her elected body malleable to the city’s emotionally compromised liberals. It was, in fact, Scheel’s heads-up last minute play on the council that averted certain disaster.
Having shielded the city and taxpayers from a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, and giving the green light to an American-owned business with a long history of charitable give-backs, what was her reward?
An affluent Boomer, shaking in outrage, screaming, “Wipe that smirk off your face!”
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
