Palmer Lake Board deems land for potential future Buc-ee’s is eligible for annexation: Whats next?
PALMER LAKE, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Palmer Lake Board of Trustees deemed that the land proposed for the state's second Buc-ee's location, is eligible to be annexed after a crowded public meeting Thursday night.
The decision came in a 4-1 vote, following nearly 2 hours of the meeting with the Board at Palmer Lake Town Hall. The decision was strictly about whether the land was eligible to be annexed in the first place. It was not whatsoever a final vote on the land being annexed, which would happen at a later date.
Those who came to attend, were divided into Residents and Non-residents, along with those were pre-signed up to speak at the meeting. Residents and speakers were prioritized for the Board of Trustees to consider. A few dozen took to the microphone with varying thoughts on the eligibility for the land to be annexed on Thursday evening, however most were against the thought.
The proposed property sits in unincorporated El Paso County, just west of I-25 and south of County Line Road near Palmer Lake. The six plots that are connected within the annexation petition, are currently owned by a woman named Maria Larsen, whose LLC is on the deed. The petition was filed in October 2024.
KRDO13 was told that although the annexation petition is in Larsen's name, she will likely sell it to Buc-ees developers if/when the annexation is completely cleared in the future.
On Thursday night, dozens of residents from Monument and Palmer Lake showed out to voice their concerns about the proposed travel stop landing in their community. Dozens more were left to listen to the meeting outside of town hall via speakers, braving the cold after the limited amount of seats inside were filled just minutes before the meeting even started at 6 p.m.
It all follows a contentious meeting last week, where many nearby residents voiced strong opposition to the beaver-themed gas station chain, rifling questions directly to members of Buc-ees' developer team.
Much of the discussion Thursday night, was filled with claims over state statute violations, and perceived zoning infractions by concerned homeowners. In particular, residents repeatedly talked about two different points regarding the annexation's eligibility.
One of those claims was that the six combined parcels of land did not have 'contiguity' with Palmer Lake. It's a sophisticated way of saying a property doesn't share a boundary with the Town, which according to some, is a violation of certain state statutes.
Those who argued this on Thursday, say this happened because a large chunk of property belonging to a man that neighbors the proposed annexation plot, just officially had his property disconnected from the Town on November 22, 2024.
Marty Bradzik, a Palmer Lake resident, voiced her concerns about this to the Board:
"The first petition, is more than 1,000 feet from the boundary of the Town of Palmer Lake and doesn't have a single point of contiguity with the town, let alone 1/6 contiguity required under CRS31-12-104(1)(a)." said Bradzik, citing the specific state statute, which says that 'an unincorporated area within a county may not be annexed to a municipality unless not less than one-sixth of the perimeter of the land area is contiguous with the municipality.'
Later on a representative from Vertex, the consulting group working alongside Buc-ees on this proposal, argued that they do in fact maintain contiguity, stating that when that neighboring property was disconnected from Palmer Lake, it did not also include the 'right of way'.
As per state statute, 'Contiguity shall not be affected by the existence of a platted street or alley, a public or private right-of-way, a public or private transportation right-of-way or area...'.
Several other residents also claimed that the annexation application only includes the southern half of County Line Road, otherwise known as W. Palmer Divide Road, where, according to them, the annexation needs to include the entire width of said road.
The consultant representative later would state that they were permitted to only include one half of the road since it was a public road.
Bradzik also claimed that there was no proper notice given to either Douglas County, or El Paso County by the Palmer Lake Town Clerk for the annexation petition 25 days prior to the hearing on December 12. Another man later asserted the same claim.
The annexation borders with Douglas County, meaning their county commissioners have to be notified about the ocurence.
She cited CORA requests that she received on December 4, with both requests coming up empty with no documents existing, per the clerks who answered her requests. Those responses were printed out and provided to the Board.
The Palmer Lake Town Clerk however later asserted that those notices were sent, and received by both counties, which was questioned by some in the crowd.
Other concerns included the impacts to emergency responses by police, fire, and other first responders should they need to get to the Buc-ees, or homes beyond the Buc-ees, with traffic and other factors at play.
The use of water was also brought up, questioning the infrastructure of Palmer Lake to handle the water usage that would be needed to support a massive travel stop like Buc-ees.
Public comments were wrapped up by 7:40 p.m., and after a recess by the Board of Trustees, they decided that they had many of their questions answered, and ultimately believed that in order to learn more about the project in full, versus just the scope of annexation eligibility, they would move forward.
The Board voted 4-1 in favor of deeming the land eligible for annexation.
Members of Vertex say the next step will be submitting post-petition applications that will inform the Town of Palmer Lake of the potential impact that would come from development. Included in that application will be a sketch plan of the property itself, more specific zoning details and so on.
That process alone they say will take a few months.
They then say they would negotiate an annexation agreement based upon those anticipated impacts,
after the town had determined whether all their criteria were met or not.
Once an annexation agreement can be reached by both sides, subsequent hearings will be scheduled, which could be as far as six months out, per Vertex.