Residents speak out against gas station proposal for old bank at 12 Mile and Evergreen

SOUTHFIELD — A grocery store gas station could be the newest feature of 12 Mile and Evergreen.

The Southfield City Council held a public hearing Aug. 26 for Kroger Co. of Michigan’s request to conditionally rezone the parcel at 19991 W. 12 Mile Road from B-2 Planned Business to B-3 General Business to construct and build a Kroger gas station at the former Bank of America building with a 198-foot kiosk. The daily hours of operation would be 6 a.m.-10 p.m., with six full-time positions available for one employee per shift and two during shift changes.

Terry Croad, Southfield director of planning, said, “This is a proposed site plan for a fuel station only, with a small kiosk, landscape plan, floor plan. It’s really only a 22- by roughly 6-foot-wide kiosk for the cashier, the proposed canopy stations, and then a rendering of what it would be looking like from the entrance, the northern entrance off of Evergreen Road. We did ask them to prepare a traffic circulation study to address other concerns that came up from the public and the council, and in the past, they made several recommendations to help with the flow of site circulation on the site.”

The 34-page traffic study was conducted by Collier Engineering and focused on traffic within the center’s parking lot, as well as the traffic on Evergreen and Twelve Mile roads, where two other gas stations currently operate: a Sunoco and a BP. According to Croad, there have been approximately seven accidents in the past six years, all minor, in that area.

Per the traffic study, the eight recommendations were made, some of which include adding yellow crosshatching adjacent to the curb along the store fronts to further emphasize parking and standing is not permitted, as well as upgrading the signage at the north driveway to Evergreen Road to include a “DO NOT ENTER” sign supplemented with a “WRONG WAY” sign on each side of the driveway. A long-term mitigation would be to reconfigure the driveway as a right-in-right-out only driveway and close the existing median opening located slightly north of the driveway.

Matthew Pisco, representing Kroger, likened the fuel station to the deli, stating, “It’s a proprietary category of the grocery store. It’s like the deli or the meat market.”

Pisco added that 30% of the gas station visitors will come from the Kroger parking lot.

“In six years, it equated to 1.17 crashes per year on the perimeter of that shopping center,” he said. “As far as the growth of traffic, the proposed fuel station had no significant traffic impact on the adjacent road network. On either 12 Mile or Evergreen it would be indiscernible from the bank, if it were open.

“The fuel station would generate 12 or fewer new trips to the adjacent roadways compared to the previous bank, which is insignificant. Additionally, the proposed development will generate 51 or fewer trips at the existing shops, at Evergreen site, driveways to 12 Mile Road and Evergreen, so that cross merchandising between our grocery store and our fuel center, where we offer discounts. It’s not a private club like Costco. For our customers, you shop at our grocery store, you can get up to $1 off into the fuel center on each gallon of fuel up to 35 gallons. It’s a way to, one, make the shopping center a one-stop shop. It’s more convenient. We offer discounts, and it builds loyalty between the stores.

“And I know in last week’s discussion, we talked about the eventuality of improvements to the grocery store as a result of growth impact of the fuel station, the marriage of those two. So we have an opportunity to take down an existing vacant bank, redevelop it, help the grocery store, help the shopping center, perform all the improvements that were identified, as far as the signage, to help within circulation, striping and the light. So we’ve gladly looked at the recommendations and said, ‘We want to be good neighbors, and we want to have a safe shopping center.’”

Pisco added that between 2019 and 2023, the Southfield store has paid almost $490,000 in property taxes, the store has donated 200,000 pounds of food to local food rescue partners since 2020, and the investment between 2018 and with projected spending in 2024 (not including a fuel station), Kroger has spent $3.23 million in that store.

However, an overwhelming number of Southfield residents took to the podium during the public hearing and expressed that they did not want a third gas station on the corner of 12 Mile and Evergreen roads.

“I’m not in favor of this at all. I remember when Kroger came here before and told the residents and the City Council members at the time that if you did not get this gas station, that you was going to pull out, and we told you to get your hat, your coat and leave. What did you do? You got your hat, your coat, and you left, and you closed down that Kroger by Providence and Greenfield,” Southfield resident Pamela Gerald said.

She said that due to the conditions at that location, she leaves Southfield to shop at cleaner Kroger locations.

“I’m very familiar with that area, but the attitude that Kroger has, and this representative to say that, ‘If we get the approval, then we will invest in the store.’ You have not invested in this store whatsoever. Now it appears to me that it might be because a lot of African Americans shop there. I used to love going to that Kroger store. I go in Birmingham. I go to Northville. I go to 15 Mile.”

Other residents mentioned what they called the unkempt condition of the Kroger store, as well as safety concerns about the traffic increase and students walking home from University High School Academy, located just half a mile down the road at 19301 W 12 Mile Road.

City Council members also expressed similar concerns.

“He (Pisco) talked about, possibly within three years, the store may be remodeled. And again, we don’t know what remodeled means. The existing store in the existing format — I’m embarrassed. I was there this past weekend. I’m not even sure what to say, and I personally feel for the people that shop in that store. There’s a lot of improvements that need to be made,” Councilwoman Nancy Banks said. “It is not a Southfield-standard store.”

Councilwoman Coretta Houge said, “I’m just wondering: Can we go back to the drawing board to see if we can consider, like, a comprehensive study, as my colleague said? But think about that or go back to the Greenfield location site, because that building is still open, right? I mean vacant. We all want to support Kroger. That’s not the issue. However, we have always said, and I was honest with you last week, that I just flat out said, ‘I’m concerned that when we see Black and brown customers, do we care how their stores look?’ And I’m not saying that’s the case, but sometimes that’s what we feel like, because we always gotta show first. We always gotta put up first, versus somebody showing a commitment to us. And because, like I said, we know businesses that do their business here in Southfield, they’re very profitable, just about everybody.”

Kroger representatives did not address the comments about the condition of the store at the meeting, and a representative could not be reached for further comment by press time.

The Kroger representatives in the audience did not approach the City Council, and the City Council decided unanimously to postpone any conversations regarding Kroger and the vote until the Oct. 28 council meeting so that Kroger could provide further details on what remodeling would mean for that location and what other improvements could be made before putting in a fuel station.

Southfield Mayor Ken Siver expressed disappointment with the current state of the store and concern that Kroger would leave if the fuel station isn’t approved.

“So I really wanted to hear what, specifically, what Kroger plans to do to give Southfield residents a better store. I also will say that I could support the additional gas pumps there, because I know a lot of Kroger shoppers, including my sister, swear by it. She loves that dollar off her gas, but I want to see something in return, as far as what Kroger plans to do in that store.

“Just telling me three years — I don’t think that’s good enough. I want to hear specifics, and then I’ll go back to Clock Tower,” he said, referring to a different strip shopping center in the city. “So when Kroger left there, and I was involved in those negotiations, when Kroger left, then what happened? Bing, bing, bing, bing, a whole number of other people (left). The anchor was gone. Kroger was the traffic generator to that strip center, Clock Tower. We lost the CVS there as well.

“There just aren’t strong businesses there anymore. I don’t like vacant stores. I don’t like vacant buildings, and that’s what I’m afraid will happen.”