
The 30 acres property located generally east of Cherry Ave. and south of E. 11th St., (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — The Kearney Planning Commission voted 6-1 to approve a rezone for a property east of Kearney to an agricultural zone to allow for resource extraction.
The applicant, Roger Harders for West Limited, LLC, was requesting that a 30 acres property located generally east of Cherry Ave. and south of E. 11th St. be rezoned from C-3, general commercial district to AG, agricultural.
The City of Kearney notes that the AG zoning district allows for multiple uses including, agricultural and civic uses, and limited residential, commercial and industrial uses.
It was also noted that the property had been rezoned from AG to C-3 in May 2023 to allow for future development, but since that date, the property has remained vacant. Harder was seeking to rezone part of the property back to AG while leaving the western part that is adjacent to Cherry Ave., around 10 acres, zoned C-3.
“Staff supported the rezoning request in 2023 as the Kearney East Expressway is considered a future commercial corridor and aligned with the Future Land Use (FLU) map. It is anticipated along this section of the expressway that there are commercial development potential options for retail, office, hospitality-type, or larger commercial developments, much like ones that already exist further north along the East Expressway,” per the City of Kearney.
The city staff also stated that this corridor has been slower to develop due to the lack of city services in the area such as water and sanitary sewer.
Harder noted that there has not been much interest in development at the moment but there has interest from another business in operating a gravel extraction operation at the site.
City staff said that a special use permit would be required for any potential gravel operation to begin work at the site.
The city staff’s finding of facts was that the proposed rezone is not compatible with the FLU designation, but if it is rezoned back to AG and not amending the FLU designation, it will protect the future intentions for development in the area.
The staff said that they understand the desire for the property owner to rezone as it has remained vacant and added since the property is already zoned in alignment with the existing FLU map, the staff cannot outright recommend approval, but they do not outright oppose as no FLU amendment was requested.
Therefore, the city staff provided no recommendation to the planning commission.
After a motion and a second to approve the rezone, the commission voted 6-1 to pass the motion.
Board member Brent Yaw had the dissenting vote and said the property had been rezoned as recently as 2023 to a zone that was compatible with the FLU for the region.
During the reports section of the meeting, the commission received an information presentation from Craig Bennett with Miller & Associates regarding the City of Kearney Utility Growth Survey.
Bennett gave the same presentation to the Kearney city council. Central Nebraska Today.com covered the presentation and the full article can be found at this link.