Mebane City Council unanimously voted to approve the rezoning and special use permit of North Carolina’s first Buc-ee’s. Currently, the closest Buc-ee’s to Alamance County is over two hours away in Florence, South Carolina; however, the new building site for this Buc-ee’s is half an hour from campus.
Mebane local and Elon sophomore Leann Beckham said she believes Mebane has grown exponentially in recent years. She said what used to be just empty backroads have now grown into new developments.
“We would always take this back road to my grandma’s house on the other side of town and now when we go on it, it is full of new developments,” Beckham said.
According to the World Population Review. Mebane has just over 21,000 residents and is growing at an average rate of 4.7% annually.
Beckham said that the new Buc-ee’s has been a topic of conversation in the community since June 2023 when it was proposed to zoning officials. When she went home over winter break, Beckham had many conversations surrounding the city council meeting and speculations on how the council would vote. In a nail salon she had never visited before, the nail technician asked her what she thought.
“I had never been to this place before to get them done, and randomly, the guy doing my nails started asking about the Buc-ee’s,” Beckham said. “Asking, ‘Are you going to the city council meeting for it?’, like ‘What do you think?’”
In a Dec. 11 meeting, the Mebane City Planning Council voted 6-3 to reject the permits; however, the decision was ultimately up to the City Council who met and approved the permits at the Jan. 8 city council meeting.
Residents who attended the city council meeting brought their concerns, many of which surrounded the topic of increased traffic. Mebane city leaders met again on Feb. 8 to discuss the traffic impacts the gas station would have on the area. They approved the North Carolina Department of Transportation to make changes to the roads surrounding where the Buc-ee’s will be built. The improvements include widening both the bridge over Interstate 40 and the ramps attached to the exit.
Beckham said she believes that the traffic moving through Mebane will not increase with the addition of the Buc-ee’s, but rather the traffic is getting worse due to an increase in population and new developments.
“It’s not going to make it worse, like worse than it already is,” Beckham said. “There are people coming and it’s not going to stop it.”
Beckham said she thinks many Mebane residents are excited about the Buc-ee’s because of the additional jobs and revenue it will bring. She also believes it will alleviate the strain on the job market within the Mebane community.
“It also brings so many jobs with people moving to Mebane,” Beckham said. “There's a need for jobs, you can't just assume that you're going to get one once you move there.”
Beckham believes that the change within Mebane will not stop with the addition of the Buc-ee’s.
“The growing is not going to stop just because Buc-ee’s is coming,” Beckham said. “ I can't even explain how different Mebane looks because of how many people have moved here and how many developments they're building.”