The Seward City Council on July 21 approved plans for the 13-lot Bluff Country Estates after discussing water concerns and the city’s plans for growth to the north and east of current city limits.
The council vote was 5-2 with councilmembers Matt Stryson and John Singleton voting against the permit. Councilmember Rich Wergin was absent.
The development proposed by Rod and Ann Lyons for the 80 acres of land his great-grandfather homesteaded northwest of the intersection of 238th and Bluff roads will have the possibility of two entries from Bluff Road and will not be tied to city water or utilities.
“We want to see a really nice development and one that is an asset to the community,” Rod Lyons told the council.
The rural area is outside the city limits, but within the city’s two-mile extra territorial jurisdiction for zoning. Roads in that two-mile area are maintained and improved by the county.
That proximity and relatively short distance between the area and other residential developments on Seward’s east side led to questions about whether city water, roads and utilities would be extended to the area any time soon.
But council members discouraged people from looking for that. The city grows at a rate of about 1 percent per year, city officials have said, and there is undeveloped land between the city limits and the area being developed.
Another issue at the meeting was the concern of residents already living in the 238nd and Bluff area who thought the council’s July 7 public hearing on the proposed development should have been delayed when the Seward Planning Commission tabled their decision on the matter in June.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier explained requirements for public notices for such hearings under the Nebraska Open Meetings Act and the city’s general intent to keep development projects that come forward moving, which meant the council had the public hearing even though the planning commission had not submitted its decision on the matter and only one person spoke at the meeting.
However, Eickmeier gave those attending the council meeting the opportunity to share their concerns on the development, which primarily focused on water availability.
“Water is an issue everybody talks about,” Eickmeier said. “It factors into a lot of our decisions on economic development.”
Developers have said the domestic wells would not be a concern and that development covenants would prohibit irrigation wells or ponds that would require more water. The area draws water from the Dakota Aquifer.
Scheele-Kayton Custom Homes filed a groundwater impact assessment with the city that indicated an additional 12 wells would have little impact on the aquifer levels in the area and said total annual withdrawal for that number of residential wells would be less than the draw of a single center-pivot irrigation well.
At the meeting, they noted that 12 homes would be expected to use about 7% of the water an irrigation well would use.Lyons said their well has been operating for more than 70 years and is 56 feet deep.
Jamie Riley, who lives across Bluff Road from Lyons, said he did not oppose other aspects of the development, but was concerned about the water supply in the future.
“If there is a problem, it is a huge, huge problem,” he said.
He noted other development projects between Bluff Country Estates and the city limits.
City Building, Zoning and Code Enforcement Director Tim Dworek said the city’s water is still roughly two miles from this development and City Engineer Mike Oneby said the cost to bring water to the area is estimated at $100 per foot, which would be around $1.2 million the landowners would have to fund.
Eickmeier said extending services and potentially annexing areas is challenging because the city must be contingent to areas that are to be annexed. This development would be “leap frogging” over areas that are not within city limits and not served by city utilities.
Councilmember Matt Stryson, who also attended the Planning Commission’s public hearing on the development, said he reviewed the city’s 2018 comprehensive plan and while there was discussion of land uses, there was not information about the two-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction area that circles the city.
Stryson said the development does not really fit into the city’s comprehensive plan and at one point proposed tabling the decision until the city had more information on how the ETJ would be handled..
“The main thing is with the comprehensive plan we are trying to grow in a way we can afford,” he said. “It doesn’t fit the comprehensive plan in my view, but we don’t really have a plan for ETJ.”
The next review of the city’s comprehensive plan is scheduled to be in the 2027-28 budget for implementation in 2029, City Administrator Greg Butcher said. Stryson suggested tabling the development plan decision to revisit that plan and the ETJ.
“I don’t want to be out of line with the people who want to move forward with this,” Stryson said.
Eickmeier said ETJs can be controversial because the city has zoning control. Due to size, Lincoln has a three-mile ETJ and Omaha’s might be four miles, he said.
“Cities wanted to have some kind of say so there is some continuity in growth,” Eickmeier said.
Councilmember Zane Francescato said he initially planned to vote against this development but noted the development happening in the area.
“It is a matter of when,” he said.
Councilmember Karl Miller said the council is making a decision and the data is hard to know.
“I don’t think at this point the water is of concern,” Miller said, noting that people wanting to live in the rural area are in a “buyer beware” situation for water all over.
