North Carolina town approves state’s first Buc-ee’s after 8-hour council meeting

A North Carolina town will be getting a Buc-ee’s convenience store, but not before an 8-hour city council meeting that heard praise for the potential jobs a store may bring and criticism for the annoyance the traffic will surely draw.

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In the end, the Mebane, (North Carolina), City Council voted 5-0 to bring the popular Texas-based travel plaza to their town.

The Mebane Buc-ee’s will be the first Buc-ee’s in North Carolina, according to WFMY.

Hundreds of people came to the meeting – representing both sides of the argument, according to the television station.

Mebane, a town of 18,408, will see a 75,000-square-foot building just off I-40 on a 32-acre site. The plan also calls for up to 120 fuel pumps at the store.

Those who have concerns over the amount of traffic such a store will bring to a small town have only to point to the popularity of the Buc-ee’s in other parts of the country.

The Buc-ee’s location in Daytona Beach, which is smaller than the proposed Mebane location, sees 5.4 million visitors a year, about 14,794 visitors a day. That number represents about 80%  of the town of Mebane’s population coming in the store each day.

“The level of congestion that the roads are going to be facing with an additional 1,000 hourly daily visitors on the weekdays and even more than that on Saturday. And that’s just not something that our roads and local people want to be dealing with when we’re trying to get to the doctor, to the grocery store, to see friends,” said Kasey Kinsella.

Others noted that the money the store may bring into the town would be worth any inconvenience.

“Something’s gonna go in that spot, (where Buc-ee’s will go) whether it be another warehouse or another trucking hub, something is going there so why not bring something that can benefit the citizens of this county,” Mebane resident, Leslie Prince said.

Buc-ee’s has more than 50 locations, with more than 40 in Texas alone.

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