By: Brian Wells | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published June 2, 2026
ROSEVILLE — The Roseville City Council voted last week to extend a moratorium on gas stations and car washes for another six months.
At its May 26 meeting, the council voted unanimously to extend the moratorium that was put in place in December. At the time, it was voted to last 180 days.
“We’re just trying to limit them,” Roseville Mayor Bob Taylor said. “Gratiot Avenue has turned into a car wash haven. It makes you think we’ve got the prettiest cars in Macomb County.”
Roseville City Manager Ryan Monroe said there are 11 car washes in Roseville and three more have approved plans.
According to a report by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development obtained by C & G Newspapers in December 2025, and with the addition of two developments on the way, Roseville will have 33 gas stations within 9.86 square miles. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau projected that the city’s population in 2024 was about 48,000, which amounts to approximately 6.88 gas stations per 10,000 residents, and 3.35 per square mile.
Comparatively, when looking at all of Macomb County, Warren had the most gas stations, with 75 — making up about 21% of all Macomb County gas stations. The same census data showed Warren as having a projected population of 137,686 in 2024, which translates to about 5.45 gas stations per 10,000 residents.
When looking at the total number of gas stations in general, Roseville came in third in Macomb County, behind Warren and Clinton Township, which had 36 total.
The report was published on Dec. 10, 2025.
Monroe said any businesses that submitted applications before the moratorium will still move forward, including an El Car Wash at the site of the former Days Inn and Gratiot Huddle Sports Bar, and the controversial Sheetz gas station at the site of the former Catholic Community of Sacred Heart church at Gratiot Avenue and Utica Road.
“There is an approved plan for a car wash where the Days Inn was located,” he said in an email. “The moratorium will not prevent the plans for Sheetz as well.”
There is also a Speedway and 7-Eleven planned for the site of the former Rite Aid at Frazho Road and Gratiot Avenue.
Mark Griffin, president of the Michigan Petroleum Association, said a moratorium would only become problematic if it became discriminatory.
“Where it would become problematic for that community is if it becomes discriminatory, if they’re keeping out a particular type of business for the typical things … race, creed, color, all those types of things,” he said.
Griffin added that free markets are what really drive business.
“The customer will decide if a business survives or doesn’t survive, ultimately by their ability to be a good neighbor, to be a responsible retailer,” he said.
The number of gas stations in an area is usually driven by the growth of the area and the traffic on the roads, he said.
“Companies, when they’re going to spend a couple of million dollars to build a new gas station, they don’t do that on a whim. They’ve done their research,” he said. “They believe that the traffic, the market, the community can support that type of a location or they wouldn’t be investing millions of dollars into that area.”
The move by Roseville’s City Council came a week after the Warren City Council voted to implement a similar moratorium at its May 19 meeting.
Warren City Councilman Jonathan Lafferty, who worked with the Warren Planning Commission to bring the moratorium forward, called the move “responsible and prudent.”
Warren City Councilman Dave Dwyer said May 19 that the city has about 69 gas stations and 25 car washes.