Buc-ee’s is coming to North Carolina. Council approves travel center for key interstate

Buc-ee’s will build its first North Carolina travel center after the Mebane City Council voted unanimously early Tuesday morning to permit the project and rezone a 32-acre site.

The council unanimously approved the construction of the 74,000-square foot convenience store and 120 gas pumps at an exit off Interstate 40/85 following an eight-hour meeting.

Roughly 70 people weighed in Monday night before the council made its unanimous rezoning decision, with proponents and critics equally passionate about whether the company should build its first mega-size travel center and gas station in North Carolina.

The city’s planning board had voted 6-3 in December to recommend denying the company’s rezoning request.

In a second vote Tuesday morning, the council unanimously voted to approve a special use permit despite vocal concerns from residents and activists about the gas station’s environmental impact.

Buc-ee’s has a developed a cult following thanks to its Beaver Nuggets, housemade brisket and barbecue, and reportedly the cleanest restrooms in the country. The travel plaza’s reputation was reflected in the public comments and the beaver-themed shirts that people wore to the hearing.

It was the company’s second shot at building in North Carolina. An earlier plan was withdrawn in nearby Orange County due to opposition to a center in Efland.

The intense interest in the project was seen in the nearly 1,100 people who watched the meeting being livestreamed online during the public hearing.

In Alamance County, the store at 1425 Trollingwood-Hawfields Road will be slightly larger than the nearby Tanger Outlets mall, but less than half the size of the Walmart on Mebane Oaks Road.

The store will hire at least 225 full-time workers, said Stan Beard, Buc-ee’s director of real estate. Annual property tax revenues were estimated at $120,300 for the city and county, plus roughly $30 million in sales tax revenues, attorney Amanda Hodierne added.

Mebane Mayor Ed Hooks emphasized that the city and county are not providing economic development incentives to land Buc-ee’s.

The crowd that spoke Monday was largely split between those who opposed the project and those who supported it, either wholeheartedly or reluctantly, because of the benefits it will bring to the city and county. Alamance County sheriff’s deputies escorted one speaker from the podium during the second public hearing when Hooks gaveled down his arguments to consider the potential for environmental damage.

Other speakers were more measured, including Mebane resident Shalini Sealey and her husband Ronnie, who started a Facebook group and a petition in support of Buc-ee’s after seeing people opposed to the project posting on social media. Their petition had garnered nearly 2,200 signatures by Monday night.

They are Buc-ee’s fans and support the business because it will be clean, make a positive economic impact and provide well-paying jobs for the community, Shalini Sealey said.

Ronnie Sealey closed his comments to the council with “Vote yeah for beaver nuggets.”

Mebane resident Ray Oliver emphasized the need for more tax dollars in the city, reminding the board about the county’s $17 million emergency expense this year to remediate mold that kept 25 of the Alamance-Burlington School System’s 37 schools closed until mid-September.

“For the people worried about air quality for children, they’re going to be outside for 20 minutes,” Oliver said. “They’re going to be inside for the rest of the day.”

Residents oppose Buc-ee’s in NC

But there were several opponents who voiced criticism about the effects of Buc-ee’s on traffic, the environment and the town’s character.

Mebane resident Peter Orton said the council’s vote “will demonstrate to all whether you are mindful of the immense need to move away from fossil fuels or instead choose to promote their expansion.”

His concern was repeated by other speakers.

“At this critical time in our planet’s history, to now build the largest gas station in the world is profoundly wrong,” Orton said. “As parents and grandparents, we have a responsibility not to leave our future generations with an increasingly unlivable world. The Buc-ee’s plan is so wrong for Mebane in so many ways.”

Mebane’s industrial and distribution centers already overburden the environment, and the city’s infrastructure cannot handle what Buc-ee’s will require, said Ayo Wilson, with the West End Revitalization Association, a local community development group.

Wilson said the planned development will send its profits out of town and create “unnecessary danger” for first responders trying to deal with emergencies near or at the Buc-ee’s.

“When you come to Mebane, you see signs that say ‘Positively charming,’” Wilson said. “Positively charming does not describe the harm that downtown shops and small business owners will experience from this Buc-ee’s. Positively charming does not include Mebane being known as the nation’s travel plaza.”

Two groups — A Voice for Orange County and the Alamance County-based 7 Directions for Service — got roughly 1,600 signatures on a petition opposing Buc-ee’s plan.

Critics fear destruction of historic Native American trading paths that served the Catawba, Occaneechi and Waxhaw. They have been joined by Emily Sutton of Haw River Assembly, who lobbied again Monday for protecting the Haw River and Jordan Lake from the effects of stormwater runoff, underground storage tanks and thousands of cars and trucks on local roads.

Hodierne countered the trading path claims with a letter from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources that said a 1997 site survey found no archaeological sites or indications of a trading path on the site. Orange County Register of Deeds Mark Chilton also had traced the path’s history, Hodierne said, finding that it veered in two directions south of the site.

What the Mebane City Council said

Council members had several questions about the fuel tanks and how leaks would be detected, traffic and environmental hazards, and the inclusion of electric vehicle charging stations. Every fuel tank is double-walled with sensors that continuously detect potential leaks and stormwater collection points separate any fuel leaks in the parking lot from the stormwater before it is released, Buc-ee’s engineer Scott Ratcliff said.

They build bigger parking lot aisles to make it safer for drivers to get around and for pedestrians to cross the parking lot, he said. The plan includes 24 EV chargers, which could be expanded as demand grows. Those chargers and the company’s willingness to consider more in the future is appealing and encouraging, Council member Katie Burkholder said.

She and other council members asked several times if the traffic improvements would be in place before the travel center opens.

“If the traffic for Buc-ee’s doesn’t work, then Buc-ee’s doesn’t work,” said Kimley Horn traffic engineer Earl Llewellyn, who studied the number of trips possible on surrounding roads.

Council members Jonathan White and Montrena Hadley also scrutinized the company’s employee policies and the poor ratings that some former workers posted in online job boards.

“I can’t do anything other than to say we have over 10,000 really happy employees,” Beard said.

A lot of the items that were brought up about our workforce are “patently false,” Beard said. “We’re proud of what we do, and our workforce is the reason that we are so popular and that we are so successful.”

What are the details?

▪ A 74,000-square-foot convenience store and 120 gas pumps (60 fueling stations) and about 650 parking spaces on 32 acres.

▪ Buc-ee’s is asking the council to approve a 400-square-foot pylon sign that is 90 feet tall, which exceeds the city’s size limits. Buc-ee’s also is asking for wall signs larger than the city’s 200-square-foot maximum.

▪ The project would add two driveways on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, a 10-foot bike and pedestrian path, and additional traffic lanes and lights on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, Senator Ralph Scott Parkway, the I-40/85 ramps, and the bridge across I-40/85.

▪ A traffic study indicates Buc-ee’s could add another 1,000 to 1,500 trips each hour during morning and evening commutes, and nearly 2,300 trips at peak hours on Saturdays. Buc-ee’s does not serve tractor-trailer trucks.

▪ The state plans to extend Lowes Boulevard from N.C. 119 to Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and Senator Ralph Scott Parkway, which could relieve pressure on the heavily traveled intersection at N.C. 119 and Trollingwood-Hawfields Road.

▪ Ground was broken in November on two of three approved warehouses for the larger, 90-acre site, part of the N.C. Commerce Park. Existing park tenants include two UPS facilities, a copper mill, concrete supplier, and Lidl, Walmart and Amazon distribution centers.

▪ The landowner sold the 32 acres to a Buc-ee’s affiliate, CSMS Management LLC, in October, according to Alamance County records.

▪ Buc-ee’s has been working with Mebane officials since last year to revise the plan, which city staff now say meets Mebane’s plans for growth in that area.

What have people said about it?

Two groups — A Voice for Orange County and the Alamance County-based 7 Directions for Service — got roughly 1,600 signatures on a petition opposing Buc-ee’s plan.

Critics fear destruction of historic Native American trading paths that served the Catawba, Occaneechi and Waxhaw. They have been joined by Emily Sutton of Haw River Assembly, who lobbied again Monday for protecting the Haw River and Jordan Lake from the effects of stormwater runoff, underground storage tanks and thousands of cars and trucks on local roads.

Buc-ee’s attorney Hodierne countered the trading path claims with a letter from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources that said a 1997 site survey found no archaeological sites or indications of a trading path on the site. Orange County Register of Deeds Mark Chilton also didn’t find any connection there to the traditional path, she said.

Mayor Pro Tem Tim Bradley later questioned why the issue of Indigenous history was not raised when the council approved previous warehouse projects, companies and new roads in that area.

Kasey Kinsella, who works for 7 Directions of Service, returned to the podium to address the question. Indigenous members of the group had already gone home because of the late hour, she said.

“They will tell you that it takes an incredible amount of courage to stand up and identify as Occaneechi-Saponi in this community,” Kinsella said. “There is a history of racial violence against Indigenous peoples and racial suppression.”

▪ While Buc-ee’s wages start at $12 to $14 an hour for entry-level workers, online employee reviews pan the company’s labor practices, including limited breaks and long hours.

▪ Others have asked if Buc-ee’s would tap Mebane’s water supply. City staff reported that the travel plaza could use 23,000 gallons of water a day, compared to 2.1 million gallons a day for existing Mebane customers.

The Graham-Mebane Water Plant has a capacity of 6 million gallons a day to serve Mebane, they said, and downstream wastewater facilities are able to serve the project. The other half is for Graham’s needs.

▪ Another group has mounted a petition drive in favor of the Buc-ee’s store. That group has gotten 1,850 signatures on its petition, which cites the additional tax revenues and well-paying jobs. Most of the additional traffic, they said, would use the interstate to get to and from Buc-ee’s.

Does Buc-ee’s have another store in North Carolina?

No. An earlier plan was proposed for Interstates 85/40 in Efland, a small community in Orange County about nine miles east of the current site. A county analysis found that the 64,000-square-foot project could bring up to $1 million in local property and sales tax revenues.

The Orange County plan was withdrawn after Buc-ee’s ran into stiff opposition from A Voice for Orange County, residents and the county commissioners, who asked for several concessions, including a smaller travel center with fewer gas pumps.