MERIDIAN, Idaho — Could a Buc-ee’s travel center be coming to the open lot north of I-84, along Meridian Rd? Idaho News 6 Meridian Neighborhood Reporter Allie Triepke spoke with city planners and reached out to Buc-ee’s to get some answers.
“There’s a lot of balls in the air on a project this big,” said Curtis Calder, Economic Development Administrator for the City of Meridian.
Meridian city planners tell me that Buc-ee’s representatives have been eyeing a spot in the Treasure Valley since January and have visited the potential site at least twice.
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“It’s basically a $50 million project, 30 acres, 120 fuel pumps, 74,000 sq ft of retail, right off of an interchange, so the traffic impacts are going to be significant,” said Calder.
The popular Texas-based truck stop chain features mega-sized convenience stores and gas stations, and many residents say they’d welcome a Buc-ee’s in Idaho.
“That would be really convenient. As a professional driver, it would just be the convenience of having a larger, more ample parking, [and] ease of access for larger vehicles, semis, buses,” said John, a Boise resident and coach bus driver.
Documents we received from the Ada County Highway District (ACHD), including email correspondence and preliminary plans between the highway district, COMPASS, and Boise-based engineering consultants Kimley-Horn, detail a large-scale convenience store dubbed the ‘Meridian Travel Center.’
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Records also show that preliminary impact studies anticipate heavy traffic on streets like Waltman and Meridian Rd that border the site.
The city says they haven’t heard from Buc-ee’s since the traffic studies, but they anticipate a project of this size would take years.
“And again, this might not be the right location; it’s got to go through a very public process,” said Calder.
Buc-ee’s media team did get back to our request for confirmation on the travel center plans, and they simply said, “no comment.”
