Kearney City Council Meeting – September 12, 2023
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Kearney City Council Meeting – September 12, 2023
The Kearney City Council met on September 12, 2023, at 5:30 PM in City Hall to conduct four public hearings, approve a 15-item consent agenda, adopt a salary ordinance, and adopt the city budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. All votes were unanimous.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes of the August 22, 2023 regular meeting.
- Approved the claims as presented.
- Approved the Keno Committee’s recommendation on allocation of non-departmental Keno funds for outside agencies.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-130 increasing “Budget Authority” by an additional one percent ($170,213.56) to be carried over as unused budget authority for 2024-2025.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-131 repealing Resolution No. 2023-19 and adopting the 2023-2024 Comprehensive Fee Schedule.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-132 setting the 2023 City property tax request at a different amount than the preliminary request set by the Buffalo County Clerk.
- Approved the Offstreet Parking District No. 1 budget and budget statement for 2023-2024 and adopted Resolution No. 2023-133.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-134 approving the Kearney Area Solid Waste Agency budget for 2023-2024.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-135 authorizing the Mayor to sign the Municipal Annual Certification of Program Compliance Form 2023 to the Nebraska Board of Public Roads Classifications and Standards.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-136 approving Change Order No. 2 (decrease of $51,615.00 and two-day contract time increase) for the Box Hangar at Kearney Regional Airport.
- Authorized letters of no recommendation to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission for manager applications from Walmart Inc. (dba Walmart #598) and Gas Solutions Inc. (dba Shop EZ).
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-137 approving Application and Certificate for Payment No. 15 ($282,690.00) for the 2.0 MG Elevated Water Tower.
- Adopted Resolution No. 2023-138 (amended) approving Change Order No. 2 (decrease of $17,436.00), Final Payment No. 7 ($66,072.73), and Certificate of Substantial Completion for the 2022 Part 3 Improvement – 11th Street (A Avenue to F Avenue).
- Approved the annual renewal of the manufactured home court license for East Lawn Mobile Homes Estates through May 31, 2024.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public addressed the council during oral communication or during any of the four public hearings.
Discussion Items
- Public Hearing 1 – Conditional Use Permit for Resource Extraction (Richter Property): Mitch Humphrey of Buffalo Surveying Corporation represented Kenneth E. Richter, Trustee. The 29.33-acre site, located west and south of 7310 2nd Avenue, is zoned AG Agricultural. The proposed conditional use permit mirrors conditions of a previously approved permit for the Blessing Premier property, but without a 100-foot buffer yard (no residential adjacency). A 20-foot buffer yard along the highway and two lines circumventing the Great Plains site are required. Hours of operation are standard. Floodplain areas will not be disturbed. The permit is for five years with automatic renewal. The council approved the permit after questions about duration.
- Public Hearings 2 & 3 – Rezone and Final Plat for Petersen Estates: Trenton Snow, surveyor for Joshua B. Petersen Trustee, presented a proposal for a four-lot rural residential subdivision (RR-1 zoning) located ¼ mile north of 11th Street on the west side of Sweetwater Avenue. Lots will be a minimum of three acres, served by private well and septic. Access via a new street (14th Street) off Sweetwater, ending in a temporary cul-de-sac; the street will become a county road with county RL2 standards. Drainage concerns raised at the planning commission were addressed: impermeable surfaces will be managed at the building permit stage, and no part of the site lies in the 100-year floodplain. The council approved the rezoning and final plat separately.
- Public Hearing 4 – One- & Six-Year Street Improvement Plan: Andy Harder, Director of Public Works, presented the plan for 2024–2030. No public comments were received. The council adopted Resolution No. 2023-129 approving the plan.
- Consent Agenda Ordinances: Ordinance No. 8648, repealing Ordinance No. 8643 and adopting the annual salary ordinance, was approved.
- Regular Agenda – Budget Adoption: Ordinance No. 8649 adopting the City of Kearney 2023-2024 fiscal year budget and the budget statement as the Annual Appropriation Bill was approved. Council Member thanked Kayla and staff for their work; noted potential issues with interest rates for next year.
- Council Reports: Council Member reported meetings with Kearney Regional regarding future development (cancer center progressing), tour of the engagement center at the university, the Yanni pavilion and gardens nearing completion, and announced the airport terminal open house on November 1, 2023 (time to be determined).
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous votes on all items: each motion passed with all present members voting aye.
- Resource Extraction Permit (Richter): Conditional use permit approved for five years with automatic renewal barring complaints.
- Petersen Estates: Rezone (Ordinance 8647) and final plat (Resolution 2023-128) approved; new street (14th Street) will be a county road.
- Street Plan: One- and Six-Year Street Improvement Plan adopted.
- Budget: 2023-2024 city budget adopted; property tax request set; budget authority increased.
- Liquor Licenses: Letters of no recommendation sent for manager applications; no council opposition.
- Airport Terminal: Open house scheduled for November 1, 2023.
Meeting Transcript
And welcome to our city council meeting for September the 12th. If you arise have a moment of silence, and then we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and which it stands. One nation under God indivisible within liberty and justice for all. Thank you. In accordance with section 841412 of the Nebraska revised statutes, a current copy of the open meetings act is available for view. It's posted on all the council chambers. We take roll, please. Mayor Klaus. Here. Bush Cutter. Here. Nicola. More. Here. We have no oral communications, no one finished business, so we'll move right to public hearing one. And that pertains to the application submitted by Buffalo Survey Incorporation for Kenneth Richter, trustee for a conditional use permit to operate a resource extraction site on property zone agricultural district located west and south of 7310 2nd Avenue. Planning Commission recommended approval. Very good. Yep. I did that before. You'd think I'd learn, right? One of these days you're gonna get the hang of it, Mitch. We'll be okay. Okay. Anyway, for the record, I am Mitch Humphrey with Buffalo Surveying Corporation located at 5308 Park Lane Drive here in Carney. And for this project, I am here to represent Kenny Richter, who is the owner of the subject property. And this property is situated to the west and south of 7310 2nd Avenue, which is the former Cowpoke site, or the really nicely remodeled uh building that Great Plains Communications happens to be using now. And and so we're west and south of that along the highway. And then here a few months ago, we uh came through a project or process to get the conditional use permit approved or get one approved for the blessing premier property site. So this site basically, if you want to call it is kind of squished between the Great Plains and 2nd Avenue location and east of the blessing property. The uh tracks around it, and I I did not identify the exact location of this property on this slide, but it basically it's it's west and south of the parcel that's zone C2PD, cross the road west of the Clearview subdivision, and then everything north and south of it is zoned agricultural. The site contains, if I remember correctly, 29.33 acres, and is accessed via a long-standing ingress egress easement that finds its way up to uh 78th road or 78th Street as a case may be, and then it gets on over to the highway. Um really what we're wanting to do is is get a conditional use permit approved that has essentially the same conditions as the blessing project, whereas the difference would be is that this one doesn't necessarily require a 100-foot uh buffer yard along the residential because there is no residential, so as a condition of this permit, there is a 20-foot buffer yard along the highway and then the two lines circumventing to the south and west side of the Great Plains site. So essentially everything else is the same, the hours of operation, so on and so forth. There is just a little bit of floodplain going across the south side of that this site, which obviously will not be excavated or or disturbed. Uh that would not bode well for the contractor or the applicant uh if the state of Nebraska uh found out about that or or FEMA or somebody found out that they had got into the floodplain with their excavation. Um it's that simple of a project from the standpoint that the presentation was the same as what we had before. There is the ordinance number on your agenda. I I don't recall the ordinance that is Peggy listed 8646, which outlines the legal description, lists of conditions, which are standard with the hours of operation being the same as as I can recall all your other conditional use permits that you've passed and approved lately, and it is signed. There is an acknowledgement for the conditional use permit signed by Kenny Richter that's on, I believe the last page of that document. So he's aware of the conditions and uh is ready to move forward. Okay, thank you. Um, and so as I read through this, um, we were already doing some of the extraction and just didn't realize they needed conditional use permit. Pretty much uh there was a conditional use permit granted on some of this property years and years ago, and that's long since expired. The city staff was good enough to bring this issue to our attention and say, hey, we we we need to clean up our records and get a current conditional use permit in place, essentially. But that's the same, like you said, same as the one we just did for blessing to the west of that. Correct.
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