Buc-ees Requests Deferral of Application for Stafford Location
Planning Commission was to have considered the application on January 14. A new date has not yet been set.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Buc-ees has asked the Stafford Planning Commission to defer holding a second public hearing on its proposed project at the intersection of Courthouse Road and Austin Ridge Drive in the Garrisonville district.
The Planning Commission in October voted to defer making a recommendation on the project to its January 14 meeting, but the company has indicated that it needs more time, county planning staff indicated this week.
Buc-ees has also waived the 100-day time limit for Planning Commission action on its application for a rezoning and special use permit to build a travel center.
In a January 5 email to members of the group Voices for a Better Stafford, which was shared with the Advance, the county’s planning director, Mike Zuraf, wrote that Buc-ees “[has] not resubmitted new rezoning and CUP application packages since the Planning Commission (PC) public hearing on October 29th.”
“They are still working on resolving transportation issues, as well as other concerns raised at the meeting,” Zuraf wrote.
The 100-day time limit between the first public hearing on a rezoning application and the Planning Commission’s recommendation would be up on February 6, Zuraf said. After January 14, the Planning Commission’s next meeting is February 11, which falls after the time limit has expired.
“As a result, the applicant needed to waive this time limit. If they did not, we would need to proceed with a PC meeting within the time limit with the application materials available to us,” Zuraf wrote. “A new PC public hearing meeting date will not be set until we receive revised application materials.”
Buc-ees first submitted the rezoning and special use permit applications for the Stafford project in February of 2024. It proposes to build a 74,000 square foot single-story store and 120 fuel pumps on a 38-acre property off Courthouse Road, near Exit 140 off Interstate 95.
The Planning Commission held the first public hearing on the project on October 29, 2025, and voted to defer making a recommendation on the project until its January 14 meeting.
Commissioners said there were still too many unanswered questions about traffic impacts to the area.
A required Operation Safety Analysis Report from the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation on proposed changes to Exit 140 off Interstate 95 is still a year away, and VDOT review of the fourth and latest version of the traffic impact analysis conducted by Buc-ee’s was also not ready for the October public hearing.
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