Two items involving the upcoming Buc-ee’s Athens travel center were on the agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting.

One dealt with a potential project to add valuable commercial space near the upcoming Buc-ee’s Athens location, while the other involves amending a city ordinance to allow businesses to have larger detached signs in certain areas.

According to City Engineer Michael Griffin, the city has annexed a portion of property near a proposed extension of Lindsay Lane, but there is currently no road to get from there to a nearby future sewer lift station being built to handle the Buc-ee’s Athens development.

He said a further extension of the Lindsay Lane project made by the city would pass the Buc-ee’s Athens development to city property in an area zoned as B-2.

“In order to get it developed as a right of way, we would pick up 1,200 feet of B-2 commercial space in order to arrive at that (station),” Griffin said.

The idea is to provide access to the future lift station site, and in turn, the area along this proposed access road could be sold as commercial space. Griffin said this could be a valuable piece of land.

“It would probably be some of the most expensive commercial property we would have in the city limits,” he said.

The Council voted unanimously to authorize Mayor Ronnie Marks to commission the development of a plan for the design and construction of the proposed access road at a cost not to exceed $300,000.

Any future plans for the road would have to come back before the Council for approval.

Bigger signs

Athens has a city ordinance in place that limits how large a detached sign can be for a business. However, major commercial properties along large thoroughfares often like to have signs larger than what is currently allowed. One example of this is the upcoming Buc-ee’s Athens location.

To accommodate Buc-ee’s Athens and any other major developments in the future, the Council voted unanimously to amend the ordinance.

“This sets up an exception to the rules you have on the books currently as it relates to accessory detached signage for major developments that are within a certain amount of feet of area around the intersection of Interstate 65 and major highways,” City Attorney Shane Black said. “It will allow for higher signs and bigger signs for those types of developments.”

Black said the locations covered by the exception would be the areas where Interstate 65 intersects U.S. 72, U.S 31 and Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road.

According to the amended ordinance, the maximum size of signs in these areas will be 590 square feet, with a maximum height of 18 feet.