Beavers are known to build a dam in less than 24 hours. It’s taken at least seven years to get the planned mega-travel center with the ball cap-wearing, semi-aquatic rodent mascot going in the city of Boerne.
Buc-ee’s, the Texas-based chain of mega-sized roadside gas stations known for clean restrooms, smoked barbecue sandwiches and crunchy Beaver Nuggets, has filed with the state to break ground on that project in the fall.
Construction on the $38 million Buc-ee’s Travel Center is now planned to start on Oct. 1 and be completed in October 2024, according to filings.
In 2016, the Boerne City Council and Kendall County entered into economic development agreements with Buc-ee’s, giving the company a 20-year rebate of half their respective shares of sales taxes generated by the store.
The city estimated at the time that the rebate would come to $375,000 a year.
The uphill climb to start building the 53,000-square-foot store began with delays on a Texas Department of Transportation project at Interstate 10 West, U.S. Highway 87 and State Highway 46.
The Buc-ee’s development was contingent on those roadway improvements, and though the work got underway in 2018 and was projected to finish in 2022, the project was slowed by the COVID pandemic. The project is “substantially complete,” according to the City of Boerne.
More recently, a debate at the county level over whether Buc-ee’s would be able to acquire an adjacent 2.4-acre parcel owned by TxDOT jeopardized the project.
Meanwhile, some Boerne residents have expressed concern about the store and its potential impact on the environment and their small-town way of life.
Mixed opinions
Founded in 1982 in Clute, Texas, today Buc-ee’s has 44 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Known for their spotless restrooms and copious food and beverage options, the super-size convenience stores also often carry a vast inventory of merchandise, including souvenirs, clothing and household items. Buc-ee’s stores typically have 80 to 120 gas pumps and Tesla Superchargers.
The proposed Buc-ee’s Travel Center in Boerne is expected to create 170 jobs with a combined annual payroll of more than $5.8 million.
“It’s a project that has mixed opinions,” said Amy Story, president and CEO of the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corporation.
Main Street in Boerne is a quaint and walkable row of shops, diners and small businesses that serve the needs of both people residing in the town’s historic homes and growing subdivisions, as well as tourists.
Anchored by a leafy green plaza with a picturesque gazebo, it stands in sharp contrast to the nearby expressway with its blaring billboards, sprawling car dealerships and soon, a massive travel center sure to draw thousands by the day.
Buc-ee’s long ago announced the store’s coming presence to a stretch of the highway by placing its characteristically bold signage near the site — one billboard reading, “Buses Welcome,” the other, “Tick Tock.”
“It is located on the interstate [and] that seems like a reasonable location for something like that,” Story said.
In addition, the store will generate beneficial sales tax revenue for the City of Boerne, taking the burden off taxpayers for city and county revenue, she said.
“Our property taxes are not low, and so any way we can diversify the tax base and shift some of that burden to the business community, I think it’s a good thing,” she said.
In the dark about plans
It’s a tradeoff that concerns Alexandria Rudd, who moved to a rural part of the county in 2017.
“Any [oil] spill would definitely pose a risk,” to the Trinity and Edwards aquifers, which provide the water for the entire region, including San Antonio, she said. “If there is a leak, it could be very problematic.”
Rudd plans to meet with Boerne Mayor Frank Ritchie in the coming weeks to share the research she’s done surrounding what standards should be met in order to prevent such a mishap in what she called a very sensitive environment.
“I believe that if this was the knowledge of City Council and the public, this project may not have gone forward,” Rudd said. Instead, Buc-ee’s plans were kept secret for too long through a non-disclosure agreement, she said.
Part of the agreement called for the city and county to pass on their right to purchase a 2.8-acre, TxDOT-owned parcel of land adjacent to the Buc-ee’s site.
By law, government entities, including the school district, had first dibs on the surplus property once the highway department completed the overpass project.
But because the project dragged on for so long, newly elected county commissioners weren’t aware, or did not fully understand, the terms of the agreement approved previously by the Commissioner’s Court and questioned the sale to Buc-ee’s when it came up in recent meetings.
Commissioner Christina Bergmann asked TxDOT to put a pause on the issue to study it further before the commissioners eventually decided to pass on it.
“It was not worthy of spending taxpayers’ money on a piece of property that was not resellable or usable for the county to use, and we should waive our right to purchase that piece of property,” she said.
With that decision, she said, Buc-ee’s could move forward and a piece of that parcel will revert to the City of Boerne, at no cost, for use in completing a thoroughfare plan.
Moving forward
Bergmann said she feels the popular travel center and retailer will do “some good things” for the county. “But I also understand that it’s not necessarily what Kendall County would prefer to have there,” she said.
A spokesman for the City of Boerne said officials signed off on the basic site plan in December 2021. During those discussions, the company agreed to move its fuel storage tanks to the front of the site, out of view of the Menger Creek neighborhood to the west.
Buc-ee’s is also required to submit its actual building plans to the city, and at that time, environmental impacts will be considered.
“Before we accept anything that would become public infrastructure — the water lines, the wastewater lines — our folks will review that and make sure that they’re built to the required specifications,” Chris Shadrock, the city’s communications director, said.
Buc-ee’s could not be reached for comment.
