Buc-ee’s faces critics as it makes another go at NC location. Here’s where project stands

An overflow crowd in Mebane opposed a record-setting-size Buc-ee’s they said could threaten the city’s local businesses and worsen traffic and pollution.

The city’s Planning Board voted 6-3 at the end of a four-hour meeting to recommend the City Council deny the project. The Mebane City Council will start its review Jan. 8 of the travel plaza and mega-gas station, city staff said.

The vote doesn’t mean the council will agree, said Planning Board member Kurt Pearson, a proponent of slowing Mebane’s growth.

“The council has the final decision, and they will continue to do what they want to do for the reasons they want to do it,” Pearson said.

The Texas-based company wants to build North Carolina’s first Buc-ee’s on 32 acres at 1425 Trollingwood-Hawfields Road. A 74,000-square-foot travel plaza would have 120 fueling spots (60 pump stations) and about 650 parking spaces.

Buc-ee’s has enthusiastic fans who seek out the stores’ knickknacks, barbecue, clean restrooms, wall of beef jerky and Beaver Nuggets. If approved, the Mebane store would be tied for the title of world’s largest gas station with a Buc-ee’s store that opened this year near Sevierville, Tennessee.

But the store’s aren’t always popular with those who live there. The proposed Mebane site is the company’s second attempt at building near the Triangle. It’s nine miles west of Efland, another site that Buc-ee’s dropped in 2021 after the Orange County commissioners said the 64,000-square-foot store and its 80-foot sign were too big.

Mebane resident Mary McFarland, one of a few dozen people who criticized the newest plans, said while many support the project, “big is not always better.”

“I feel for y’all, because it’s a hard place, and I also agree in a way that this decision has been made,” McFarland said Monday, referring to a recent land sale. “They meet the standards, they meet the questions, but honestly in your heart of hearts, is this what you want Mebane to be known for?”

The new location in Alamance County’s N.C. Commerce Park already includes Walmart, Lidl and UPS distribution centers. Crow Holdings, which sold the land to a Buc-ee’s affiliate, has approval to build a 279,000-square-foot warehouse on the site.

The area is otherwise rural and residential, with a Love’s Travel Stop and a Pilot Travel Center. The site is adjacent to Hawfields Presbyterian Church and the Hawfields baseball field.

What to know about Buc-ee’s

▪ Buc-ee’s has built over 60 stores in several states in the last 40 years.

▪ At the Mebane site, a bike and pedestrian pathway, with crosswalks and pedestrian signals, would be built on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, starting at Senator Ralph Scott Parkway and crossing the Interstates 40/85 bridge.

▪ The plaza would have two driveways on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and a third on Senator Ralph Scott Parkway.

▪ Buc-ee’s would widen Trollingwood-Hawfields Road, the bridge over Interstates 85/40 and the interstates’ on-and off-ramps. It also would add stoplights at four intersections.

What’s happened so far?

▪ CSMS Management LLC, which is affiliated with Buc-ee’s, paid $12.8 million for the land in October, according to Alamance County records.

▪ The seller, CHI/Acquisitions, LP, had bought the land as part of a 90-acre, $14 million deal earlier this year.

▪ CHI/Acquisitions is the development arm of Crow Holdings Industrial, which got Mebane’s approval to annex and rezone the property for warehouses in December 2022. The Buc-ee’s plan needs Mebane City Council approval to rezone the land again for the travel plaza.

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

Why are residents opposed to Buc-ee’s in NC?

▪ One of the biggest concerns is how the Buc-ee’s travel plaza will affect surrounding roads, including N.C. 119, which serves as a busy corridor from southern Alamance County to Mebane and Interstate 85/40.

▪ N.C. Department of Transportation data showed roughly 10,000 trips a day on Trollingwood-Hawfields Road in 2019. 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.

▪ A Voice for Efland, the group that rallied against the Orange County project, has aligned itself with the Alamance County-based 7 Directions of Service, which has collected over 900 signatures on a petition and encouraged the public to speak against the project.

▪ A key concern is water, air and noise pollution, primarily how parking and other impervious surfaces could affect water quality and increase stormwater runoff into Back Creek and the Haw River. Similar environmental and traffic concerns were raised in Orange County, where the 104-acre plan also included up to 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and offices.

▪ 7 Directions of Service organizers also noted the area is part of the historic Indian Trading Path, or Catawba Path, which connects the area along Old N.C. 10, Bowden Road and Old Hillsborough Road to points south and north, including tribal lands in Orange County.

What they said: “We’ve been encouraging the city of Mebane, the planning board, and other industries in Mebane to grow with where the country and world are going with clean energy and climate justice. … Based on what we’re seeing with the Buc-ee’s plan, with the square footage across the country and the millions of dollars put in it, we don’t see [Buc-ee’s] incorporating that presence in the world, said Omega Wilson, co-founder of the West End Revitalization Association, which is partnering with 7 Directions of Service.

What happens next?

▪ The council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Jan. 8 to review the project.

▪ Negotiations will determine the size of Buc-ee’s proposed signs. The company wants a 400-square-foot sign that is 90 feet tall — about the length of a college basketball court. Mebane’s limit is a 300-square-foot sign that is 60 feet tall. Buc-ee’s also wants wall signs bigger than 200 square feet.

This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 4:01 PM.

Tammy Grubb

The News & Observer

919-829-8926

Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.