P&Z postpones vote on ‘sloppy’ Buc-ee’s rezone request
“Sloppy” is how one member of Boerne’s Planning and Zoning Commission described procedures on a zoning change request for mega-convenience store Bucee’s, which sought P&Z approval Monday on acreage to be rezoned for use as employee parking.
P&Z, however, voted 6-0 to delay further action for an additional 60 days after questions arose on language in the agenda item as presented to commissioners.
After sitting through an hour of public comment generally derisive of Buc-ee’s efforts to build its 50,000 square-foot, 110-pump fueling station/convenience store on the Interstate 10 East access road at its intersection with South Main Street, P&Z members had their say, and the tone eventually shifted from procedural to opinionated.
Commissioner Susan Friar questioned a presentation by city staff that tangled a previous request in July for rezoning of 3.9 acres of land purchased by Bucee’s from the Texas Department of Transportation, to a 5.15-acre parcel before P&Z Monday night.
“I didn’t hear transparency in your comments a lot tonight, but I know that you want transparency, and so do we,” Friar said near the end of the two-hour Buc-ee’s discussion.
“We don’t only want it, we expect it, and we should demand it,” Friar said. “I’m going to use the word sloppy. I think we can all agree this (has been) a sloppy deal for a long time. I’m not willing to be part of ‘sloppy’ moving forward to get this to city council.”
The motion before the commission was to rezone acreage originally zoned B2 in 2020, prior to the city’s adoption of its Unified Development Code in 2021. The UDC eliminated B2 zoning, leaving P&Z to compare the intent of the property with its existing new code structure.
An original motion planned for the July 7 P&Z agenda featured a “request to rezone a 3.975-acre tract to C3-SICO (community commercial within the Scenic Interstate Corridor Overlay District)” — a motion which grew on Monday’s agenda to a 5.155 acretract adjacent to the Buc-ee’s site.
Commissioner Bill Bird said he was troubled “by all the misinformation” caused by the difference in acreage on the agendas, referring to it as “one more error, one more mistake.” “I understand ... we’re human, but at some point in time, this needs to stop. We need to get it right,” Bird said. “And right now is not a good time to be making errors.”
Commission Chair Tim Bannwolf wrapped comments from the dais and didn’t hold back in expressing his displeasure with certain aspects of the night’s proceedings.
The agenda, he said, was posted two different ways. “I think it was correctly posted back in July ... and comes back to us now in September as a ratification, which I think is incorrect.”
Bannwolf expressed his disdain with Buc-ee’s failing to have a representative attend the meeting, as the company has failed to be part of recent exchanges involving staff and city council members.
“That is frankly disappointing to me. I frankly feel like Buc-ee’s is giving us the middle finger tonight and that doesn’t sit well with me,” Bannwolf said.
He further called the proposal “a changed project” from its original intent in July.
“Instead of a fueling station and four retail pad sites, now we have a fueling station and a giant parking lot,” Bannwolf said.
“Given the changed nature of this project and the removal of those four pad sites, the city’s no longer getting the benefit of the bargain it struck with Bucee’s nine years ago,” he said.
“A parking lot in lieu of those four pad sites ... will yield zero sales tax revenue and only minimal property tax revenue for the city. That’s a vastly different project than what the development agreement contemplated nine years ago,” he added, before calling for the vote to postpone action on the agenda item until the P&Z’s November meeting.
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