The Palmer Lake Board of Trustees took the first step Thursday night in a series of actions that eventually could annex land where a Texas company wants to build Colorado’s second Buc-ee’s location.
The proposal to build a 74,000-square-foot convenience store and gas station along Interstate 25 about 50 miles south of Denver has angered residents of Palmer Lake and surrounding communities.
Buc-ee’s opened its first store in the state in March in Johnstown, at the southwest corner of I-25 and Colorado 60 about 47 miles north of Denver.
About 300 people attended a Dec. 4 public meeting in Palmer Lake where Buc-ee’s representatives spoke about plans for a second store. A report by KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs showed people in the crowd with anti-Buc-ee’s signs. Objections ran the gamut from impacts on area traffic, the loss of the area’s rural character and noise.
In Thursday night’s meeting, the Palmer Lake trustees considered only whether the landowner’s application to have about 36 acres annexed to the town met the legal requirements. Next steps include a traffic study, a fiscal analysis and consideration of the development’s potential impacts on services, water and other details.
The board voted 4-1 for a resolution saying the land is eligible for annexation. At the start of the meeting and throughout, Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Stern told speakers to address only whether the annexation application met state legal criteria.
However, many speakers urged the board to reject the application based on a number of complaints, including that a large travel center that stays open 24/7 would be out of place in the area. Some challenged the legality of the plan by the landowner, Monument Ridge West LLC, to connect to the town via a road from the community’s boundary, about 1.47 miles to the west, to the intersection of I-25 and County Line Road.
A few speakers said having a Buc-ee’s in town would generate revenue for Palmer Lake.
A representative from Vertex Consulting Service, representing the landowner, said the annexation plan meets the requirement that not less than one-sixth of the perimeter of the area must be contiguous with the town boundary.
“For us to gain more information that’s needed, we must move forward through this process,” Palmer Lake Trustee Shana Ball said. “We can’t get any further information without making this first step.”
There are 50 Buc-ee’s stores, with most of those in Texas. The one in Johnstown is 74,000 square feet and has 116 gas pumps. The company doesn’t allow semitrailers on site except to make deliveries.
The stores have a big following. Hundreds of people showed up hours before the grand opening of the Johnstown location. Buc-ee’s is known for its red-capped beaver mascot as well its Texas barbecue, pastries, fudge, rows and rows of T-shirts and other merchandise, and what the company claims are the cleanest bathrooms in America.
