Mebane’s planning board gave its blessing Monday night, 8-1, to a rezoning request to allow the second Sheetz in the city, this one at the Buckhorn Road exit in western Orange County.
But unlike the other Mebane location and its other locations in Alamance County, this one is both larger and also designed to accommodate tractor trailer traffic.
In fact, there are five diesel pumps separate from the usual gas pump configuration at most Sheetz locations, together with 38 tractor trailer parking spaces around the southern/southwestern perimeter of the site.
The Buckhorn Road Sheetz will occupy what are now eight separate parcels, totaling 10.22 acres, which now have addresses as 527, 621, 703, and 707 Buckhorn Road. As such, the new Sheetz site is about three times larger than the existing one on Mebane Oaks Road (which is located on 3.41 acres).
The site is located across Buckhorn Industrial Parkway (the new drive into a five-building industrial park built by Al Neyer company) from the Petro Travel Center, a truck stop located at 500 Buckhorn Road, next to the interstate.
[Story continues below graphics of the proposed site plan and nearby zoning designations.]
The site is located across Buckhorn Industrial Parkway (the new drive into a 5-building industrial park built by Al Neyer company) from the Petro Travel Center, a truck stop located at 500 Buckhorn Road, next to the interstate.
Roadway improvements will include: widening the eastbound and westbound interchange ramps to Buckhorn Road; installing a traffic light with a right turn lane at the intersection of Buckhorn Road and Buckhorn Industrial Parkway; and including right and left turn lanes at the Sheetz entrance on Buckhorn Road. The exit ramps will also be signalized at Buckhorn Road, it was noted.
[Story continues below graphic of I-85/40 Buckhorn Road exit improvements.]
The convenience store will span 6,879 square feet.
Development director Ashley Ownbey explained why she had concluded that the gas station/convenience store zoning designation was appropriate rather than truck stop/travel plaza, such as for the Petro truck stop located across Buckhorn Industrial Parkway from the Sheetz site.
She noted that there were no repair services offered, unlike at other truck stops in the city’s jurisdiction, not only at Petro next door, but also Love’s and Pilot at the Trollingwood Road exit. Also no truck washing would be provided at the Sheetz station, unlike at most truck stops.
As to possible overnight parking, Chris Bostic, a traffic consultant to the company, said that because the Sheetz will be open 24 hours, seven days a week, there could be overnight tractor trailer parking, but that there were no “accommodations” in the store for spending the night. It was also noted that there were no showers in the store.
Ownbey provided the newspaper with emailed comments from Sean Poole, Sheetz’ senior real estate site selector, from one of his communications with the planning department in early 2024 on the subject: “We will not have any minor repair services to trucks,” Poole stated. “For overnight parking, we do not provide any services or provide marketing to customers stating we have overnight parking. It isn’t something we promote, although we don’t have a way of managing it because we are a 24/7 operation providing high-flow diesel fuel and commercial parking. That said, our operations teams monitor the parking lot from time to time to contact companies who they notice are on our lot for an extended period of time.”
Ownbey said that the addition of repair facilities or other aspects that might change the nature of the zoning would ultimately require city council approval, presuming that the initial rezoning is approved.
There are no electric vehicle (EV) charging stations shown on the company’s submitted plans, but Bostic said those are typically added later after consultation with Tesla or other electric car manufacturers.
The planning board vote for approval was 8-1, with William Chapman opposed. He said he was concerned by the “continual growth” of tractor trailer traffic along Buckhorn Road, a concern voiced by some other members who voted for the final rezoning. Voting in favor were: Colin Cannell, Keith Hoover, Dalton Mack, Gale Pettiford, David Scott, Susan Semonite, chairman Judy Taylor, and Edward Tulauskas.
“This Sheetz is about trucks,” said Cannell during the meeting. He expressed the hope that the Buckhorn Road location would draw some vehicular traffic away from the company’s Mebane Oaks station, which he described as frequently congested.
Cannell said after the meeting that, in supporting the rezoning, he had concluded that the Buckhorn Sheetz will “cater a lot to traffic that will be on Buckhorn Road already.”
“We’re not ignorant of traffic [issues] on Buckhorn Road,” Cannell said after the planning board ote, saying the “aggregation of many things” adds to the truck congestion.
It was observed during the meeting that a trucking terminal is planned for across Buckhorn Road from the new Sheetz; it was approved by the city council in July 2024, but no work has begun on the site.
That plan, which passed on a 3-2 vote, will have a trucking and freight terminal of approximately 135,950 square feet on 84 acres and have 202 doors or bay for loading/unloading; the preliminary plan for that project also calls for construction of 7,500 square feet of office space, a maintenance building, as well as parking for 320 employees and 296 truck parking spaces.
A future expansion of the truck terminal could span about 53,000 square feet, with an additional 81 doors, or bays, based on the preliminary site plan reviewed at the time.
Chairman Taylor echoed one resident’s concerns about tractor trailers pulling out into traffic on Buckhorn Road, sometimes cutting off cars. “They know they’re bigger than my Mazda 3,” Taylor noted.
Fiona Yohann, the resident, complained to the planning board about “trucks pulling out in front of me” on Buckhorn Road.
Paul Koonts, a Burlington attorney representing Sheetz’ Mebane project, told the planning board that the company had held a Zoom meeting with residents in the area last week and that most had concluded the project was acceptable.
The city council will take up the rezoning for the property, as well as an annexation request for it, at its December 8 meeting.
Meanwhile, Sheetz is considering another, regular-size station and convenience store on the edge of Swepsonville. Read more here: https://alamancenews.com/sheetz-looking-to-build-fifth-county-site-in-swepsonville/
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