Commissioners encounter turbulence over private airport zoning regulations

Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Keith Marvin of Marvin Planning Consultants, David City, and Red Willow County zoning officials Kristi Korell, left, and Patricia Eilenberger review zoning regulation recommendations for public airports and private airstrips during the county commissioners' weekly meeting Monday morning. In the background is planning board member Fred Shepherd.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners took no action Monday morning to change or eliminate the county's existing zoning regulations that govern public airports and private airstrips.

After nearly an hour of discussion during their regular meeting, commissioners passed the issue back to the county's zoning board, asking zoning board members to revisit their recommendation that commissioners accept a change in wording that separates regulations for public airports from those for private airstrips, retaining existing regulations for both entities.

Bartley-area landowners adjacent to the only private airstrip in the county want regulations for private airstrips eliminated altogether. This action would presumably then also eliminate some restrictions on the use of land adjacent to private airstrips. The airstrip owner sees the value of the zoning, which he says has prevented cell phone towers from being erected near his runway.

Keith Marvin, of Marvin Planning Consultants, David City, told commissioners and about a dozen people in the commissioners' room that one of the purposes of zoning is to keep differing land uses and non-compatible uses away from each other. He said that the goal of airport/airstrip zoning regulations in Red Willow and Perkins counties has been "to stop cell towers from plopping down at the end of runways" and to keep tall obstacles such as wind turbines away from airports/airstrips.

Marvin said that Red Willow and Perkins counties are the only counties in Nebraska that regulate private airstrips with zoning laws, and that is because the counties and communities themselves indicated, at the time of writing their zoning regs, that airport/airstrip regulations were a priority.

Marvin said that zoning regs regarding private airstrips are not required by the State of Nebraska, that the two counties' regs were written with local input, local discussion and local control to regulate the height and proximity of buildings/development on properties adjacent to airstrips and to allow for the development of future airstrips on appropriate sites.

Marvin said that public airports are controlled by state and federal regulations and that a city's own zoning regulations regarding airport land use and runways ends at the city's two-mile radius, at which point a county's zoning regulations take over.

The Bartley airstrip was grandfathered in when Red Willow County approved its zoning regs in 2001 because it has been in operation and lawful since 1969, Marvin said. No laws prohibited it in 2001, and it has grandfather rights until/unless it is abandoned for that use for at least 12 months, he said.

The airstrip, officially Lee Field Airport, owned and operated by Mike Sides, is bordered on the north by Highway 6&34 and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks, and further west along the south side by land owned by Trevor Taylor and Linda Taylor of McCook. The Taylors have put up a steel building adjacent to Sides' runway.

Another neighbor, Tim Sughroue, asked whether county zoning would allow an REA power line located at the west end of the Bartley airstrip and within the airstrip's glide slope to be rebuilt if it were destroyed. Marvin replied, "Yes, because any public entity that has eminent domain powers, such as a power company or railroad, is exempt from zoning codes."

Trevor Taylor asked about trees, hay bales, any solid objects located in the approach zones, how and why they're regulated, and about the cost expended by the county for such regulation.

Marvin said that counties can't budget enough money to address absolutely every little thing and that most zoning questions are addressed on a complaint basis.

But, Marvin said, he wants landowners to think proactively and check for zoning regulations before building or developing. "It's easier to ask for permission first," he said than ask for forgiveness after doing something contrary to zoning regulations.

Taylor told commissioners that the county shouldn't be involved at all in the dispute over the uses of his land and of Sides' land. "This should be an issue between private landowners," he said. Taylor said the private airstrip zoning appears to him to be there to benefit one particular landowner, (who also serves on the county's planning board). Taylor recommends that commissioners eliminate completely private airstrip zoning in its zoning regulations.

Linda Taylor scolded commissioners about "government over-reach with regulations." Many counties do not have zoning on private airstrips and she does not want private airstrip zoning in Red Willow County, she said.

Linda Taylor added, "Because of one airstrip, we don't need these regulations."

Sides said that, as a member of the county's planning board, he has always recused himself in decisions regarding airstrips. He said his airstrip is a commercial operation with crop spaying and is the base of his own farm operation, and that he has $400,000 in a new maintenance facility. He said other neighbors have no problem with the airstrip. Sides said the zoning language is identical to that in 2001. "Our concerns are distances from the sides and approaches to the ends," he said.

Marvin told commissioners that not taking action Monday does not change the county's existing regulations on private airstrips, that the zoning board's recommendation is simply to separate the language for public airports and private strips. "What you've got is nothing new; it just separates public airports and private airstrips," he said.

Commission chairman Earl McNutt pointed out that public airport/private airstrip language in the county's zoning books has been in place "for a long long time. My intent is not to reverse anything we've got."

Commissioners asked zoning administrator Kristi Korell to take the issue back to the zoning board and review its recommendation to commissioners to approve the separation of public airports and airstrips.

Commissioner Steve Downer said the process will include a public hearing before commissioners and the public, public input and discussion, and approval or denial during a commissioners' open meeting. He declined to "short circuit" the process by making any action or making any decision without following the county's own requirements.

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