ROSEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Sheetz project in Roseville may have just cleared its last hurdle. A Macomb County judge has tossed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the sale of the proposed site.
Some Roseville residents have been fighting in support of that lawsuit since the beginning of this year.
The plan is to build the gas station on the property of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It's one of 50-60 new locations Sheetz is planning to build in metro Detroit over the next couple of years.
However, Roseville isn't the only community where people are speaking out against a Sheetz moving in. Residents in Livonia, Farmington Hills, Waterford Township and Royal Oak have all expressed concerns about proposals for the gas station-convenience store in their communities.
In Roseville, residents are mixed on what to do with the former church. One idea is a shelter that would keep the building standing. Those who wanted the structure demolished still say they didn't need a gas station on the corner.
"I think it's time to demo this and do something. I don't see a gas station improving downtown," one resident told us.
"It would take a lot of money to kind of revamp it, so I would say move on," another said.
"I don't think they need to tear down the church; they can do something else with it. There are too many homeless people walking the street who need something like this," a third told us.
The man fighting to keep it a church is Pastor Curtiss Ostosh of Harvest Time Christian Fellowship, A Macomb Circuit Judge just threw out his lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Detroit which asked to stop the sale and demo of the church.
Ostosh said in 2021, he made an agreement to buy the church for $1.5 million and put money into the restoration, but vandals broke in and damaged the building. The diocese said his claim lapsed when final payments weren't sent.
"We were negotiating with the Archdiocese of Detroit and Mooney Real Estate, their real estate division in terms of how we could work this out. It was never worked out. We were in active negotiations and it all just fell apart," Ostosh said.
He said he's going to repeal the circuit judge's decision tossing out his lawsuit.
