UPDATE: City Council members are scheduled to vote on the CID at the June 13 meeting.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Springfield City Council Members are expected to hold a public hearing and discuss entering into an agreement to form a community improvement district in the area where the new Buc-ee’s will be built.

The 53,000-square-foot travel center with 100 fuel pumps will be located at I-44 and Mulroy Road. The new Buc-ee’s will require $8.5 million in public improvements, which includes road work and public utility extensions.

In January 2022, Springfield City Council members voted to enter into an agreement with Buc-ee’s to finance those improvements, meaning the city would reimburse Buc-ee’s up to $4.1 million. That money would come from tax revenues generated by the development through existing taxes over a maximum of 20 years. Those existing taxes are the one-cent general sales tax and the one-fourth-cent capital improvement sales tax. That agreement also included a promise to create a community improvement district to pay for the rest of the work.

By establishing a community improvement district, Buc-ee’s will be able to charge shoppers a tax of no more than five-eighths of one percent (0.625%) on all retail sales made there.

Buc-ee’s has purchased the property for its proposed development and has officially filed asking the city to establish the community improvement district. The community improvement district (CID) would be called Cottle’s Range.

The next steps are for council members to hear about and discuss the CID. Citizens will be allowed to speak on the issue at the May 31, 2022 meeting and council members are not expected to vote on it that night. If the council votes to move ahead, voters who live in the area that would be affected by the CID will vote by mail-in ballot. If it passes then, the money raised by the sales tax will raise the rest of the money the city needs to pay for improvements needed for the area.

For many more details about the proposed CID and the plans Buc-ee’s has for the property it has purchased, you can read the full council bill on the city’s website.