PALMER LAKE, Colo. — Colorado’s first — and to date only — Buc-ee’s travel plaza is humming along near Johnstown, but the battle to build a second one is far from settled.
The success of the first massive travel center might have made opening one in El Paso County seem like a no-brainer, but local resistance to the project has left the chance of opening at the company’s preferred location in doubt.
The fight has drawn in both of Colorado’s senators, its governor, a billionaire telecom magnate and three southern Colorado communities. Three Palmer Lake trustees and its mayor have left the town’s seven-member Palmer Lake Board of Trustees since early June, two via recall and two resigning…