Tobacco sales could be coming to site of former Sycamore 7-Eleven

SYCAMORE – A Sycamore resident is one step closer to operating a new convenience store in the same location as the former Sycamore 7-Eleven.

The Sycamore Planning and Zoning Commission voted 10-0 to recommend the City Council approve a request by the owners to operate Xpress Mart, a convenience store that could sell tobacco and related products, at 404 W. State St.

Although Bill Davey, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, said he’d received a handful of calls from constituents concerned about the proposal, he said Nehalkumar Patel, the business owner and Sycamore resident petitioning, has indicated the store would abide by city tobacco sales regulations.

City Manager Michael Hall said he thinks some members of the public – only one individual aside from Patel and city officials attended Monday’s meeting – didn’t understand the nature of the business.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding that this would be a tobacco shop, and it’s not,” Hall said. “It’s a convenience store with selling tobacco, as are all convenience stores, and very similar to what 7-Eleven was doing. So that’s where the misunderstanding came from.”

Before the unanimous vote, commissioner Rachel Sauber said she fielded calls indicating that wasn’t the case.

“I also had a couple of people reach out to me for the first time since I’ve been on this commission, and they were not confused,” she said. “They didn’t like selling tobacco downtown, didn’t like the idea of a convenience store being located this close to downtown given that we have gas stations pretty close, where you can buy tobacco products. If you’re in the downtown, you can drive a couple of blocks to do that.”

The store requires a special use permit to sell tobacco and related products because it would be located inside the Central Business District in downtown Sycamore, which doesn’t automatically allow the sale of tobacco and related products, Hall said. Business owners can request a special use permit to override the tobacco sales prohibition, which is what Patel has done.

The 7-Eleven at the same location did not need a special use permit from the city to sell tobacco because it was grandfathered-in, as a legally nonconforming business, when the city previously updated its zoning regulations, Hall said.

Alcohol sales at Xpress Mart will require additional city approval, Hall said.

There is no timeline for the business to open, but once open, the store would be operate 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. seven days a week. It could also stay open 24 hours a day in the future, according to city documents.

The store would not be within 250 feet of a residential property containing a nursery; preschool; primary, intermediate or secondary school; day care center; or day care home. It also is not located within a residentially zoned area, according to city documents.

No tobacco or tobacco-related products will be displayed in or sold from the main retail area of the store. Instead, they’ll be displayed and sold from behind the cashier counter, requiring an employee to get the product for a transaction, according to city documents.

The special use request will go before Sycamore City Council at a future meeting with a recommendation to approve from the Planning and Zoning Commission.