Residents urge commissioners to reject Buc-ee's rezoning, press for fair hearing in Tri-Lakes

Dozens of Tri-Lakes residents pressed the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners on July 21 to oppose a proposed 74,000-square-foot Buc-ee's travel center at Monument Hill and to change procedures for the upcoming administrative-determination appeal.

Speakers repeatedly told commissioners the project is far larger than a neighborhood convenience store and would generate heavy truck and tourist traffic that local corridors such as Beacon Light Road and County Line Road cannot safely accommodate. "This is not a convenience store," said Kenneth Kaye, speaking as a Monument resident, describing plans the speakers said included up to 120 fuel positions and hundreds of parking spaces. Residents cited a Buc-ee's business model that projects 8,000 to 20,000 visitors per day and warned that daily traffic could exceed the total population of Monument.

Why it matters: Residents said the proposed development threatens the Tri-Lakes area's rural character, private wells, wildlife and emergency-response times and argued the county's current administrative classification process allows very large projects to avoid public review. Multiple speakers asked the board to require new geotechnical studies, CDOT certification for nearby roads, and to enforce the El Paso County Land Development Code rather than recategorize the place to suit the proposal.

Several speakers also urged procedural changes for the appeal hearing. Steve Draper and others asked the board to hold the hearing in the Tri-Lakes area at an evening hour so more residents can attend, to permit organized citizen presentations equal to the applicants', and to allow citizens a closing opportunity after applicants' rebuttal. "It shouldn't be an endurance contest to be heard," Draper said, asking commissioners to disclose and bind time limits that apply equally to both sides.

Opponents raised technical and environmental concerns: Lynette Perseta cited LDC section 6.22 and a Shannon & Wilson 2022 report she said assumed 0% heavy commercial trucks on Beacon Light Road; she urged independent geotechnical and engineering certifications and asked whether CDOT would certify the road stretch to carry high-volume commercial traffic. Gretchen Van Cleve O'Donnell and other residents warned the project could draw down local aquifers and said private wells could be at risk.

The record: Many speakers emphasized the scale of prior land-use approvals and urged the commission to use the county's land development code rewrite to close what they described as loopholes that allow administrative approvals for regionally scaled projects. Several speakers noted prior hearings in Palmer Lake that required lengthy sessions and urged the county to accept prior records into the appeal record rather than starting anew.

The board did not take a substantive vote on the rezoning at the July 21 meeting; commissioners moved to convene an executive session later that day to receive legal advice on appeal procedures. The executive session agenda item cited relevant Colorado statutes and county resolutions governing the administrative determination appeal process.

Attribution: Quotes and attributions above come from the public comment period during the July 21, 2026 El Paso County Board of County Commissioners meeting. The speakers referenced by name in this article are included in the meeting's public speaker list as recorded in the transcript.

Next steps: The board signaled it would receive legal advice in executive session about hearing protocols and the administrative-determination appeal process; the project will appear on a future agenda when the public appeal is scheduled. Residents requested an evening Tri-Lakes hearing and expanded presentation time for organized citizen groups.