North Carolina has added its fair share of national businesses to its portfolio in the past few years – and last week, another joined the group just down the road from Orange County.
After pulling out of its plans to build in Efland in 2021, the gas station and travel plaza chain Buc-ee’s received approval from the City of Mebane to build its first North Carolina location on January 8. The city council approved the group’s conditional zoning application 5-0, which will bring a 74,000 square foot travel center building and 120 gas pumps to 1425 Trollingwood-Hawfields Road.
The 32-acre site is just ten minutes west along Interstates 40 and 85 where the Texas company had initially applied to build in Orange County in 2020. At the time, the proposal for Efland Station – which aimed to build one of the signature Buc-ee’s travel plazas and create a hub for other businesses to eventually develop – was met with a mix of skepticism and support among residents and elected officials. During the conditional zoning process, the Orange County Commissioners effectively tabled the project by asking for more conditions after three rounds of public hearings – specifically pushing for more environmental protections and more electric vehicle charging stations. Two weeks later, Buc-ee’s pulled the project, citing the county as “just not a good fit” and calling commissioners “not receptive” to their business.
The night of the Mebane City Council meeting, dozens of residents shared their feelings during public comment on the latest proposal – with the discussion extending late into the night as people both for and against the gas station chain addressed elected officials.
Ultimately, according to Mebane Public Information Officer Kelly Hunter, the council believed Buc-ee’s agreed to enough of the city’s requests.
“[The council] found the applicant met all of our needs,” she said during an interview with 97.9 The Hill, “and they have gone back to the drawing board multiple times during the TRC process – our Technical Review Committee. And they have made multiple changes to accommodate and go with Mebane’s rules and regulations.”
Neither Mebane or Alamance County offered tax breaks or financial incentives to Buc-ee’s in the final approval, according to Hunter, with the travel center company shouldering the costs of road maintenance and updates around Exit 152 off I-40.
“So, the widening of the bridge, the widening of the roads getting off I-40 and I-85… all of that will be completed before Bucee’s even opens their doors,” said Hunter. “And that will help alleviate the traffic and deal with the influx of cars coming to Mebane.”
Representatives for Buc-ee’s told Mebane officials the travel center will employ more than 220 people at a living wage while bringing in around $30 million taxable sales each year. North Carolina, Alamance County, and towns in the county will split the sales taxes, with much of it going to fund education and infrastructure needs, according to Hunter. Meanwhile, Buc-ee’s said it estimates paying more than $2 million in property taxes.
Among community member’s concerns brought during the public comment period were the general environmental impact and the risk of any spill. Hunter said Buc-ee’s representatives assured city officials over their measures to prevent and respond to any such situation – including moving the storage tanks entirely out of a flood plain and installing sensors at the tanks.
“These sensors can distinguish between groundwater and fuel, and they have three sets of sensors,” said the Mebane PIO, “so if one fails, then they have a backup to it. And that will help them monitor there [are] no leaks or anything like that, so they can catch that before any major issue would happen.
“Heaven forbid, if something were to happen,” Hunter added, “Bucee’s would be responsible for all the cleanup and all that, so none of [the city’s or residents’] money would go into that.”
Opponents of the travel center, though, contend the economic benefits may not be enough trade off for environmental changes with increased traffic. Among those who advocated against Buc-ee’s is 7 Directions of Service – an Indigenous-led environmental justice group based in the Orange and Alamance County region that are homelands to the Occaneechi-Saponi people. The group was started in opposition of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, but has since branched out into other efforts to protect Indigenous sites and more environmental causes.
Crystal Cavalier-Keck is a co-founder of the group and spoke with 97.9 The Hill about the Buc-ee’s proposal after 7 Directions of Service delivered a petition with hundreds of signatures against the application. She said one reason she was concerned about the development is its positioning to an area known in Indigenous history called The Great Trading Path.
“People [would] come up from Florida, come down from Virginia,” said Cavalier-Keck. “And a lot of people passed away on that path, so usually where people would pass away we would bury them. And also, you have to remember, there wasn’t a road there – no traffic, a lot of villages could’ve been there, possibly.
“There hasn’t been any archeological surveys done in that [area] to even look and see,” she added, “because that was all private land. So I guess [what changed was] it was up for sale.”
While Buc-ee’s will cover the road maintenance before the travel center opens, Cavalier-Keck questioned what the costs of increased traffic elsewhere around Mebane might lead to.
“The roads are already overburdened with daily traffic,” she said, “big trucks going to Lidl, Wal-Mart, Chik-Fil-A, all of those warehouse stores are already over there. Who’s going to pay for the road when it tears up? It’s going to fall on us, the taxpayers.”
Members of 7 Directions of Service spoke during the public comment period on January 8 and shared a statement after the Mebane City Council passed Buc-ee’s conditional zoning request. Jason Campos-Keck, who is Crystal’s husband and also a co-founder of the advocacy nonprofit, said he thinks residents should stay aware of other businesses following Buc-ee’s model.
“The predatory nature of this project and others like it, that invade a community from states away, with no respect or responsibility to locals, reveals itself in the division such actors create upon entering a small town, a ‘positively charming’ city such as ours,” Campos Keck wrote. “The cookie-cutter corporate division tactic has always been to frame those who are critical of their exploitative practices, as against all development. The uneducated response–from those easily manipulated–is to cheerlead all projects regardless of the harm, lack of need and integrity. All development becomes a good thing. Buc-ee’s and others like them are cunning and smart in their pursuit to exploit the innocent. Us working people must stay united, critically thinking and vigilant in the face of such abuses.”
According to the Buc-ee’s application to the City of Mebane, the travel plaza at 1425 Trollingwood-Hawfields Road could complete construction and open as early as 2025.
Featured photo via CSMS Management, LLC / Buc-ee’s.
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