Traffic and Impact to Local Businesses

Over the last few months, our neighborhood has sent numerous emails to the DOT and Oak Creek city
leaders regarding a traffic impact analysis; specifically related to the Oakwood Road area.

DOT has responded and indicated they did not perform a traffic analysis but rather the developer had
their own private traffic analysis performed by Kimley- Horn. In this response, they have indicated ONLY
27 th and Elm was reviewed. DOT has made revisions and are waiting to hear back from the developer on
those revisions. It’s concerning that the DOT is basing their revisions on Bucees self-reporting. Their self-
reporting is using their volume projections for the Oak Creek site rather than conducting a full and fair
study to predict anticipated volumes. We have seen in several cities across the United States, Bucees
has a history of under reporting traffic projections. They use a rural prototype and then utilize it in a
suburban area.

A proposed Buc-ee’s location was being considered in Corinth, Texas. The city conducted their own
study and found Bucees projections were off by several thousand cars/daily and they noted this would
have a SEVERE impact on the area. As a result of this concern and others, the Corinth, Texas proposed
did not move forward in the process due to the negative impacts this would have on their community.

In another example Balwin County, Alabama had to find out the hard way. They placed trust in
projections provided by Buc-ee’s. They subsequently found themselves in a major political 3-way
standoff with Bucees, the County and the City to respond to and reactively fix the traffic nightmare their
city was enduring as a result of the impacts to their community.

It is imperative that we raise this same concern that Buc-ee’s has suppressed and possibly deliberately
under reported traffic volumes in impacts for the location that is being proposed in our own community.
Buc-ee’s is submitting an application with the same traffic projections as Springfield, MO whose closest
major city is over 2 hours away (Kansas City or St Louis). In addition, the Springfield location is literally in
the middle of nowhere with no major residential area in site.

The application they have put forth for Oak Creek shows flaws and blatant lack of transparency as we
know our metro area far surpasses Springfield. We’d like to present comparison to the data to show
factual evidence this has not been conducted fairly or accurately.
 The Springfield Metro population is 475,000. In comparison, Milwaukee County alone has a
population of 910, 000 which is almost double of the Springfield Metro population.
 Even more concerning, this does not even include Racine or Kenosha counties while Chicago
metropolitan area, which is only 60 miles away, has a population of 9.2 million.

Even with a conservative estimate, Oak Creek would have to at least double the volume than the
Springfield, MO development. The Oak Creek TIA performed by Kimley Horn based on Bucees
projections is fraudulent and does reflect accurate volumes in Southeastern, WI/ Northern Illinois
consumers. Bucees clearly did not research the area they plan to develop in nor report accurate
numbers.

As stated during the Plan Commission meeting on January 28th , it was presented that only 10% of local
traffic would be coming from local traffic. If we believe that only 10% of local traffic would use our
roads to get to Bucees, then you need to multiply your TIA volumes to reflect an accurate local volume
for this development that includes Racine County. If this was completed, it would show that Oakwood
Road, which is the closest East-West Road would be well over capacity.

Also, during the January 28 th Plan Commission meeting, we raised concerns there is no East/West
highway connecting to Bucees. Local county traffic will use Hwy 32, Oakwood Rd, Ryan Rd, 27 th Street.
Our OC leaders did not conduct a Traffic Impact Analysis on our local area as it relates to impacts Bucees
will bring. On the traffic reports that were conducted on Oakwood Rd., sent to us by the Oak Creek city
engineer, on March 14, 2025 were based on data collected in 2022. In the 3 years since the last data
collection, traffic has significantly changed due to increased use of the Elm on/off ramp as local traffic
avoids the Ryan Road/ Amazon area due to increased congestion. Another change since the last data
collection is in 2023, the Saputo factory opened which is located on 27 th and Oakwood. Saputo brings
several hundred cars that have been using Oakwood Rd since then. It’s also important to note that
Saputo is also not even at full operating capacity yet and will be employing up to 600 employees that
will utilizing this area as well.

Oak Creek needs to do an updated traffic impact on this area as it relates to Bucees to reflect current
and accurate projected volumes.

Buc-ees uses inconsistent data and traffic projections across their various proposed locations. For Oak
Creek, they projected 10% of traffic would come from local traffic. In Deforest, WI, which is a very rural
area, Buc-ees reported a traffic projection that 85% of visitors would be non-local and 15 % of visitors
would be coming from the local Deforest area. It raises questions why Deforest would have more local
patrons than the Milwaukee county area. The additional 5% increase in the disparity of the volume
project would add 600 ADDITIONAL cars to our local roads daily if it’s to be believed that only 12k are
arriving each day. Consideration also needs to take place for the peak volumes Bucees has projected to
be readily available for max capacity.