A drive-thru business selling cigarettes and tobacco could move to a Route 120 site where a coffee kiosk once stood.
Ron Bykowski, the owner of the property on 3706 W. Elm St., said he has a potential lessee interested in opening up a drive-thru tobacco shop.
Bykowski and his potential lessee, Syed Najmuddin, are seeking an extension of the conditional-use permit for the drive-thru function at tonight’s McHenry City Council meeting.
In November 2007, the City Council approved the conditional use permit for the property. At the time, Bear Creek Coffee, a small coffee kiosk, sought the permit to operate a drive-thru service. The business closed in 2010.
City staff is recommending the council approve the extension request for a period of six months or before Sept. 19, pending the business’s approved building permit and certificate of occupancy.
Under the city’s zoning ordinance, the conditional-use permit that was approved for Bear Creek Coffee in 2007 automatically was revoked because the business closed for more than a year. Any request for alterations would require City Council approval or a hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Bykowski cites the economic downturn as one of the factors for Bear Creek Coffee, a franchise of Boone Lagoon Enterprises, “to go bankrupt and not pay their debts,” he wrote to city officials.
“Many [franchisees] lost a considerable amount of money, some their entire investment,” he said.
Najmuddin, of Lake in the Hills, is interested in leasing the property with the existing drive-thru kiosk to sell cigarettes and tobacco and possibly expand with coffee and soft drink sales.
[Thomas: This is in Illinois]
