08/21/2026
⛽ THEY CALLED IT A GAS STATION. JUST NOT TO US.
Their engineers wrote to the Federal Highway Administration on May 28, 2025:
"The primary development anticipated to affect the interchange is a 120-fueling position Buc-ee's gas station with a 74,000 square foot convenience store."
Gas stations are not allowed in C-1. That's why they're not calling it one here.
At page 5 of their application to El Paso County, they say the proposal "does not meet the Code definition of a Gas Station."
The letter calling it a gas station is at page 228 of that same application.
Same document. 223 pages apart.
And here's what an El Paso County land use application makes you sign:
"I am fully aware that any misrepresentation of any information on this application may be grounds for denial or revocation."
Grounds for denial.
📏 THEIR OWN ENGINEER DREW WHAT A REAL ONE LOOKS LIKE
When Kimley-Horn modelled a code-compliant store on this exact parcel, they drew 5,000 square feet and 16 fueling positions.
They're asking for 74,000 and 120.
Fifteen times the building. Seven and a half times the pumps. Same firm. Same land.
💧 AND WHAT DOES A "NEIGHBORHOOD CONVENIENCE STORE" NEED?
Two wells permitted in April — one authorized to 2,250 feet.
A 500,000-gallon water tank.
A chlorination building.
A booster pump station.
A sanitary sewer lift station.
Their 297-page application mentions gallons eleven times.
Four label the tank. Seven are the pot sizes of shrubs.
It never once says how much water the store will use. No demand figure. No fire flow. No well yield.
The only engineering estimate in the public record — prepared for the Town of Palmer Lake — is 37,300 gallons a day. Over a million gallons a month.
If you're on a well out there, that's your aquifer.
🚦 AND IT HAS ALREADY BEEN COUNTED
Mississippi's first Buc-ee's — same building. The Gulf Regional Planning Commission counted the cars coming off I-10:
27,000 vehicles over two weekdays. 41,000 over the following three-day weekend.
A 2021 study of that same area found about 10,000 a day on the entire road network.
The store alone pulls more traffic than every road around it carried before it existed. Harrison County rebuilt the interstate overpass from two lanes to five. A year later the backups still happen weekly.
📍 AND IN COLORADO
The Johnstown Buc-ee's opened March 2024 — same prototype, the only one in this state. Reported incidents within two miles, matched twelve-month periods:
116 before. 215 the first year. 254 the second.
Total reported incidents on the LexisNexis Community Crime Map — traffic incidents and vandalism as well as theft. Not index crime, and we don't offer them as a crime statistic. They are what a corridor looks like when twenty thousand vehicles a day arrive in it.
⚠️ NOW THE PART THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY
Had the County granted this administratively, future approvals for the site "would be handled administratively. No public notices would be issued, and no hearings would be held."
Those are the County's own words.
And the County's code lets only the property owner appeal an administrative determination. Residents have no standing at all. Buc-ee's does — and they appealed within a week.
The Public Hearing Participation page was created on August 10 — seventeen days before this hearing, on an appeal pending since July 2. Modified August 12. Modified again August 19.
Speakers here were traditionally allotted three minutes and permitted to give their time to a neighbor. On July 23, immediately before a quasi-judicial hearing, that became ninety seconds and no ceding. The page now says you "may be limited to one minute."
No slides. No signs. No applause. Six printed copies.
We have objected, in writing, to the Office of the County Attorney, and our objections are in the record for ADM264.
What we objected to: none of it comes from the Board's own adopted rules — Resolution No. 26-8, adopted January 13, 2026 — which expressly contemplates opposition comment after the applicant's rebuttal, and which directs each speaker to submit "charts, maps, or other demonstrative evidence" to the Clerk. The webpage restricts the very material the adopted rules assume the public will bring.
We asked the Board to state, on the record, the adopted authority for any procedure that departs from it.
A webpage is not the rules. The resolution is.
📧 SO SEND THE EMAIL. IT'S THE PART THEY CAN'T LIMIT.
The County has said outright that its decision cannot rest on how many people show up — only on evidence.
A hundred identical letters count as one. A hundred letters each carrying one person's own observation of that intersection is evidence. That's the part nobody else can write.
DEADLINE: NOON, WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26
👉 SAMPLE LETTER AND EVERY ADDRESS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SRQiQDPTR16Dmy2RqQfIBe-gx0l5XhfqQHjTPJ80tMI/edit?usp=sharing
⚠️ Sent one earlier and got a bounce-back? It never arrived. The County has acknowledged the address was published incorrectly. Please send it again.
And register to speak, closes 9:00 a.m. Thursday. 👉https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2_qwiDTPxEe56hOZY4lYIAeEik-3jPVJnqWnTWjLIOhURFdOQkJLQkhQRUpFSE8zUjBSN00wT0ZQVyQlQCN0PWcu
🗓️ THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 · 9:00 A.M.
Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Avenue
A full room looks different from an empty one.
And register to speak 👉 → REGISTER TO SPEAK: SIGN UP VIA THE PORTAL: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2_qwiDTPxEe56hOZY4lYIAeEik-3jPVJnqWnTWjLIOhURFdOQkJLQkhQRUpFSE8zUjBSN00wT0ZQVyQlQCN0PWcu 🗓️ THURSDAY, AUGUST 27 · 9:00 A.M. Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Avenue ...
