PALMER LAKE — Residents will vote on whether to approve or deny an annexation proposal for a Buc-ee’s travel center in Colorado at the corner of Interstate 25 and County Line Road between Denver and Colorado Springs.
Palmer Lake’s seven-person Board of Trustees voted 4-3 Thursday evening to hold an election, slated for an undetermined date, during an overflowing meeting at town hall. The vote will happen prior to any decision or further discussion by the board on the proposed gas station and convenience store.
Matt Beverly, vice president of nonprofit Tri-Lakes Preservation, said Thursday’s decision contradicted an ordinance passed by voters last month, designed to give voters a final say in annexations to the town. The group wants to be able to hear the proposal discussed by the trustees before a vote to annex the land.
“They are saying we must do the vote first, which was never the plan for the petition,” Beverly said. “If you talk to anyone who voted for it in this town, they are going to say, ‘No that’s not the reason. We want the final say.’”
The developers submitted a written request for the annexation election, which trustees approved Thursday. The hourlong meeting ended with many people yelling and without public comment following the trustees’ vote.
The board tabled further discussion over the election, including the ballot initiative language.
“How is the board going to write the question, the petition initiatives, when it has not even been talked about in front of the board yet?” Beverly said outside of town hall.
City Attorney Scott Krob recommended Feb. 5 for the board to continue its debate over the annexation proposal to allow adequate time after the election.
The proposal for the supersize gas station and convenience store has ignited a bitter fight in Palmer Lake, pitting residents, neighboring communities and town officials against one another over land use, conservation, transparency and the future of the small town.
It has also drawn attention from cable television magnate John Malone, who worked on the massive open space preservation project that abuts the proposed gas station, Colorado U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Gov. Jared Polis.
In a Sept. 12 letter addressed to Buc-ee’s owner, Arch H. “Beaver” Aplin III, Polis, Bennet and Hickenlooper asked Alpin to reconsider the proposed Buc-ee’s near the Greenland Ranch, which the officials called “one of the most consequential conservation corridors” in the nation.
The 22,000 acres of land became protected under a massive land deal 25 years ago to keep the fast-growing Colorado Springs and Denver from merging into a giant megalopolis. The travel center, which would be built on the edge of the protected area, would undermine Colorado’s commitment to conservation, critics say.
“We are concerned that a Buc-ee’s development at this site would fundamentally change how the public and wildlife experience this unique landscape,” the three officials wrote in the letter. “The impact of a 24/7, high-intensity facility would undercut the values Coloradans paid to protect: wildlife habitat, uninterrupted viewsheds, open spaces, working ranchland, and dark skies.”
In a special election last month, residents approved the recall of two trustees from the board, after both voted to consider the flagpole annexation of the Buc-ee’s parcel last winter. Voters also approved a ballot initiative that would put upcoming annexations to a vote.
Prior to the special election, Palmer Lake’s planning commission advised town officials Wednesday night to rethink its existing plans to annex the land to build the travel center, saying the proposed development would violate the town’s master plan.