Claudia and Kevin Kraus were among the 15 or 20 people who attended the April 20 open house unveiling Seward County’s updated and reformatted planning and zoning regulations at the Seward Civic Center.
“We just have concerns so we are interested,” said Claudia Kraus.
They have cattle on their pasture land in the very southeast corner of Seward County, a mile from the Saline County line and closer to the Lancaster County line. They see more housing going up across those lines and they want to see family farms continue.
“We want to leave our grandchildren something better, not worse,” she said of their 80-acre parcel that has been in the family for more than 120 years.
Their sentiments were similar to others attending the open house, like Cathleen Bowen, Craig Manson and Bob Vaughn Dilley.
Some said they attended meetings when the zoning regulations were first adopted in 2007, and they plan to continue monitoring the process.
Seward County Commissioner Misty Ahmic and consultant John Shepard of Marvin Planning Consultants in David City were on hand to answer questions about the maps and zoning overlays on display, but there was no presentation about the updates or reformatting of the zoning regulations.
The Seward County Planning and Zoning Commission has been reviewing the new regulations for several months. Zoning Administrator Marissa Pfile said the planning commission is expected to discuss some of the regulations at its May 18 meeting and may consider scheduling a public hearing on them in June.
Once they send their recommendations to the Seward County Board of Commissioners they, too, could include discussion on their agendas.
Ahmic has said the changes to the regulations are primarily additions of topics not previously included in the regulations.
A handout provided at the open house listed new standards for battery energy storage systems, rooftop and commercial solar energy facilities. In addition, it notes the regulations include clearer procedures for small wind systems and large commercial wind projects and detailed battery storage systems, and commercial solar and wind decommissioning.
Specific to livestock feeding operations, the new regulations set clearer standards, including updated setback distances from homes and when public hearings are required.
It also offers a section addressing standards for “how, where and when manure and animal waste are stored, handled and applied to better protect water quality and neighbors.”
The county hired a consultant several years ago to revise and update the county’s regulations, but found the revised format cumbersome. The commissioners hired Marvin Planning Consultants to reformat the regulations to ease residents’ use of the document.
Shepard said the reformatting was important to make it easy for people to find the information they are looking for.
While the new plan is detailed and lengthy, he said it is important that the standards the county sets be enforceable and manageable for the county, which has only a zoning administrator and a half-time clerk in the department.
“People in Seward County should not be paying for a big city set of standards,” he said.
Seward County’s current regulations were adopted in 2007, and the zoning website lists supplemental regulations added in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
While the current regulations are posted on the county’s website, the new regulations will not be posted until they are adopted, so they can only be viewed in the zoning office.
Ahmic has repeatedly said in meetings and interviews that once the new regulations and formatting are adopted, the county can go back to edit or adopt new zoning.
