No West Alabama Buc-ees Planned for Now, As Demopolis Withdraws Annexation Legislation

Hopes that a new Buc-ees or another mega-size service station was coming to West Alabama are on ice for now after Demopolis withdrew proposed legislation to annex a huge tract of land for commercial development.

In a largely unnoticed move, the Demopolis City Council met last week and approved an agreement to annex 305 acres of land in the Gallion area.

Although Demopolis is in Marengo County, its agreement was with the Hale County Commission and said the two governments would work together to develop the property into a revenue-generating site.

Reporting from the Black Belt News Network showed the agreement also contained clauses to share revenue from sales tax and gasoline taxes generated by tenants on the site.

With a tract of land that big and talk of a truck stop or gas station, a predictable conversation unfolded on social media this week. Could this be the site of Alabama's next Buc-ees?

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No, Demopolis Mayor Woody Collins told the Thread during a Tuesday phone call. Or, at least not yet.

"We have been pushing very hard for one reason only. Governor Ivey has been so generous and so gracious to our area that we wanted to show her how much we appreciated it," he said. "We wanted to try to create some economic development along the West Alabama Corridor, which is one of her signature projects."

Ivey is investing significant public funds to build a four-lane highway from Tuscaloosa County to Thomasville, hoping it will spark economic development throughout the Black Belt.

Collins said the idea is to annex land at a key intersection of the project at Highway 69 and Highway 80 and work collaboratively to make sure it's developed into something worthy of the state's investment.

The cart may have gotten in front of the horse, the Demopolis mayor said.

"These issues of annexation are very complicated. I'll make no bones about it," Collins said. "You have property owners whose permission you need to go forward, but the state legislature also has to run it up their pole and pass a bill in the House and Senate."

Demopolis sent proposed legislation to approve the annexation to Montgomery after their January 27th council meeting, but Collins said they decided to withdraw that legislation on Monday.

"We still want to do it, but there were some questions that came up between the county, the city, the land owners, the legislature, and we realized we were just we were getting too far ahead of ourselves by moving so fast."

Collins said passing the local legislation may be difficult during an election year, when lawmakers typically race through their time in Montgomery and get back to the campaign trail.

Although he regrets that Governor Ivey will no longer be in office when the next legislative session begins in 2027, Collins said Demopolis will be better prepared to make the case for this annexation next year.

"We discussed this at length yesterday and decided to slow down and catch our breath," Collins said. "Let's spend the next eight or 10 months making sure every question is answered about everything we want to do with I's dotted and T's crossed. If everything works, we'll apply for it again next legislative session."

With land acquisition in these early stages, Collins said there are no prospective tenants tied to the site yet, despite the community's expressed interest in a Buc-ees this week.

For more coverage of plans for the Hale County site as they develop, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.