Seward County Commissioners have placed a six-month moratorium on the consideration of conditional use permits for poultry farms.
Effective upon its approval on Aug. 4 and retroactive to July 31, the commissioners’ resolution noted the recent increase in conditional use permits sought and issued for large-commercial poultry Confined Feeding Operations, or chicken confinement facilities and related processing activities.
The moratorium affects neither the operations already granted conditional use permits nor the one pending application that is scheduled to be considered by the commissioners on Aug. 26.
What it will do, Commission Chair Misty Ahmic said, is give the Seward County Planning Commission and the Seward County Board of Commissioners time to review the county’s current and revised zoning regulations – which have been in review for several years – to assure they address potential issues related to health, safety, welfare, infrastructure and environmental quality in Seward County.
Questions on those topics have been raised in recent public hearings and Ahmic said whether people are for or against the farms, “there’s no secret there’s a lot of information being shared.”
She also noted inconsistencies the commissioners have seen in the decisions made by the Planning Commission, which sends its review and recommendation to the board for action on such applications.
“We are not trying to block anything. It is not to say that we do not want to be ag friendly anymore,” she said. “This does not mean we are not going to approve any more CPOs.”
Ahmic said the commissioners are asking the planning commission members to look at the current regulations – which are unchanged in the proposed updating of the county’s book of zoning regulations – to “make sure they are the best for Seward County.”
She expects zoning commissioners will reach out to other counties to see how their zoning regulations address the issues in Seward County. Ahmic, a former planning commission member, serves as the board of commissioners’ liaison to the planning commission and is assisted by commissioner Scott Pekarek.
She said they will also assist the commissioners but will not lead the review.
County officials want to assure people that they have heard their concerns around the chicken barns, and that the regulations are clean and comprehensive.
“I don’t expect that it would take any longer than six months,” Ahmic said.
Any changes proposed for the county’s zoning regulations that come out of this review will follow the standard approval process, which includes public hearings at the planning commission and the county board levels.
Ahmic noted that the recent round of applications has been part of some expansion for SmartChicken, so another surge of applications is unexpected. The moratorium adopted cites the “observable impacts on local infrastructure and communities” and the increased commercial truck traffic on county roads, potential health concerns related to air quality, odor, dust and the proximity of neighbors, and environmental concerns about runoff, disposal of poultry litter and the “cumulative environmental effects of concentrated poultry operations.”
Its stated goal is to assure zoning and regulatory provisions will “adequately address the size, scale, spacing, and operation of poultry facilities.”
The moratorium will apply to applications for conditional use permits for any new or expanding large Confined Feeding Operation, as defined in the current regulations, involving chickens, ducks, geese or turkeys retroactive to July 31 and ending Feb. 1.
The county had eight chicken farms at the beginning of 2025, most established between 2018 and 2020. Since January, three conditional use permits have been approved for additional farms and a fourth is the one scheduled for the commissioners’ review in late August.
Most of the farms follow a standard production protocol and are affiliated with SmartChicken or Lincoln Premium Poultry chicken processors. The recent applications have included eight barns and 224,000 chickens per farm total.
Current zoning regulations categorize a livestock operation of that size as a Large Confined Feeding Operation I, which requires a 1,980-foot setback from a residence that is not on the property, a platted residential area, public park, recreational area, church, cemetery, religious area, Interstate 80, school, historical site and/or residential district.
The farms must be on land zoned A-1 Agricultural Preservation District, which is intended to protect land best suited for agricultural uses, including commercial feeding of livestock. All permits are also subject to completion of any licensing, waste disposal or other state land use requirements.
Within the county application process for conditional use permits is the requirement to include waste handling, site and waste disposal and manure management plans aligning with those required by the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment (formerly the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality).
There are also requirements for proper drainage for waste and storm or surface runoff and limitations to the land’s proximity to the water table or flood areas, as noted in state policy.
Seward County was designated a Livestock Friendly County in 2017 by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. This recognizes the county’s support of livestock operations, including potential education, appreciation and community-related activities, as well as commitment to support the livestock industry in the county and to enforce zoning ordinances.
In other action Aug. 4, the commissioners:
• Determined that the “miscellaneous districts” that have levy authority need not present their 2025-26 budget information to the board when those budget items are considered Sept. 1, which includes the Seward County Ag Society, Seward Fire District, Pleasant Dale Cemetery District and J Precinct Cemetery District.
• Selected Midwest Infrastructure for the Project C-80 (510) Staplehurst Southwest bridge replacement on Raymond Road west of 350th Road, whose bid was for $805,556 with a start date of Feb. 1.
• Finalized the confirmation of program compliance for the Nebraska Board of Public Roads Classifications and Standards, which is required annually.
