Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

left those in the truck, huh? My oldest grandson. Bless you. Probably 162 now. Get your little remotes out. You still,

huh? Feel like somebody's wagering tonight. that they play in post.

Don't want that right in front of you. I get it. All right. Welcome to the uh January 27th, 2026 City of North Plat Planning Commission meeting. Um first item on the agenda tonight is roll call. Hades here. Mun here. Matthews here. Bane here. Fudge here. Jet here. Forbes here. Warl and Vanvela yep.

Quorum is present. Current copy of the openings meeting act of the state of Nebraska is on the wall back there. You can refer to it at any time for all of you in the audience tonight. Um item number two, approve minutes from the November 25th, 2025 meeting. It's been a hot minute since we've been together. I assume you've read all these and have been paying very close attention to them. Would make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by Bane, seconded by Davies to approve the minutes as presented. Any discussion on that matter? Michelle, please. Our notebooks aren't here tonight.

Oh, Emily's not here. And the minutes are approved. Uh item number three, file number SU26-001, discussion, consider action on application by Zeller Classic Rentals LLC for pre preliminary and final approval of Zeller Second Subdivision located at 15101 East 2nd Street in an I1 light industrial district on property described as lot 39 subdivision North Plat Lincoln County, Nebraska. Judy.

Okay. And you should have all received a copy of the preliminary plat and the final plat. Um the subdivision will split one lot into two lots. This both lots do have access to city utilities and a petition for paving has been filed with all neighboring property owners opposed to the paving. And that was for paving on the north on 13th Street. So pretty simple, just a lot split. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those. Jeff, I was just going to say you said Second Street. Yeah, I'm sorry. 12th Street. Appears to be a ruckus in the hallway.

Questions, comments, concerns? I move to make a recommendation to approve file number SU26-001, preliminary and final approval of Zeller second subdivision. Second. Motion by Jet, seconded by Davies, I do believe. Nope. Sorry. Kurt Siri to approve as presented. Any more discussion? Not Michelle, please. And the motion is approved. Okay, that will go to the city council meeting on February 3rd.

Item number four, discuss possible updates to North Plat City code of ordinances regarding utility extensions, annexations, and smallcale cell towers. And I forgot the one about uh food vendors, but that's also in here. So, this is food vendors. So, this isn't um anything that we're going to act on. The city attorney hasn't um reviewed any of it, so I'm sure there'll be lots of changes. Um but the first one kind of came about. The uh parks department reached out to me to see if we could get some regulations for um food vendors. I like to take the shortcut. So, we just talked about keeping them out of city parks. Um, do you want to talk about that one more?

Yeah. So, um, we've been talking about this one for a little while actually. And so, um, in regulating food trucks, it's actually a little bit more complicated um, just because the state of Nebraska has a process that you have to go through in order to regulate them. And um so there are certain um requirements and checks that we have to check off the the box if we're going to modify our ordinances uh so that it all complies with state statute. So um I have some drafts that I had an associate in my office put together a little while ago and so we're kind of going through those. So, I'm uh anticipating that. I think for purposes of today, uh we're just looking for maybe more of a general discussion as to whether we think it would be a good idea to regulate the food trucks. Uh whether we should continue down this path to bring some proposed uh changes to the city code to everybody to look through and to have more uh more public input on it. But um for that's what I'm looking for I guess uh today is just kind of more input from all of you to see if that's if we should could continue down that path or if it's something that shouldn't be regulated at all. Um I think some of what we're hearing in city hall is that um there's started to be more outofstate food trucks that have started to come through um that maybe don't have um anybody checking to make sure that um that they have the um proper things in place from our health department and and so you know we've heard some of that from maybe more of the local food trucks but then also like Judy said from uh the the parks department maybe not the best uh to allow them within the city parks unless we know who they are and what they're doing.

So we do we have them showing up that don't because all food trucks in Nebraska are required to have a certificate from the department of health basically. So do we have them showing up in our community that don't have that? We I mean I don't know that we can say there have maybe been some complaints that that at least that I'm aware of. um but nothing more than a complaint. Uh so we could always do some more checking with police department and places like that that might have more solid information, but um part of the question is who would go out and check on my go check

or maybe they should have to check in when they're coming to town and show their credentials. Sure. and submit the dates they're going to be here, you know, that's basically and basically get a weekend permit or whatever they need to if as they're going through. Well, when anybody brings like when Nebraska land days would bring a carnival in, it would be similar to that where we were responsible for going to the city and getting the permit for the carnival and then and then that would notify the police that they were going to have such a facility on site. They would come out, do the inspection prior to the carnival being allowed to open. I could see something similar being kind of a handy process for here. Yeah. But there's usually not a sponsor for an out ofstate food truck. Correct.

And that's where some of the state statutes talk about uh being able for the the city being able to enter into like an interlocal agreement with another agency. I'm thinking like the health department that would be more equipped to be able to go in and do inspections of of the that nature because we don't have anybody on staff that may be trained to be able to do something like that. One of the one of the biggest complaints I get is somebody parking in an alley or parking in a street or parking in a city park. So, typically when they come in and ask me what they need to do, I tell them don't park in any any type of public rideway. But again, who's out there checking that, enforcing it?

I think too, uh, from the downtown association perspective, which I'm on that board, there's been incidents where they'll just pull up on the side of the road, you know, like in a parking space, that sort of thing, and then they end up competing with some of the, you know, restaurants down downtown, but they might not be licensed to do so. So, I think having some um regulation or whatever you might want to call it in place is good. We may not be able to check every single one, but I bet our the competitors would check and have an opportunity to turn them in or I like the idea though of I mean, at last I knew there was a food inspector that was based here

and a state food inspector that was based here that maybe we could enter an interlocal agreement with. And they're certainly equipped to go out and do those inspections and do those things. They do. They inspect when you prime rib feed. Oh yeah. They inspect the bank periodically when we're doing events. So um they they would I agree with you. That seems to make a lot of sense to me. Well, I was going to ask if there is a health inspector in here. If there's one stationed here, then yeah, that'd be a great way to do it. Exactly. I had a question about when the downtown has music on the bricks and there's vendors. Are they licensed? I don't know. I don't remember if any of them were food vendors, but

yeah, there were some food vendors down there. Did they have to get a permit or a license or anything for music on the bricks? As far as the city, correct me if I'm wrong, we don't have any required permits. So, would they have to even get permission from whoever's putting on the bricks? Maybe the music on the bricks would be the sponsor to get those up because they know they're coming. They've requested they come. So, they'd save them a space or whatever. So, they know they're coming. Yeah, that would be the that would be similar to the way we used to behave out there. We knew we were having an event, we needed x number of vendors. So like arts and the parks and things like that at Cody Park would follow under the same rules. Okay. Right. That they could come in and apply for, but they'd still need to be inspected. Correct.

So yes, that so when once the food truck was on site, first we required them to have a I believe there's a license that they have to get annually from the state of Nebraska. We required that and then we required them to be inspected by the health inspector before they were open. So I would think some sort of language that does the same thing for for us as a municipality would be wise. And what about the location? Can we have this have them get approval from a policeman for the location that they're not in a public rideway?

I can look into it. I I haven't dug as far into what all we can do as as um I would have hoped for this conversation, but I can keep looking into it and see um because obviously when the state says this is what you can do, we have some pretty strict parameters as to what we can and cannot uh put into the city code. So, if they weren't invited for an event and they just wanted to come to town and open a a vagrant taco stand, um, then they would still have to go to the city health department and get that. I would think they would still need a license,

a license from the state of Nebraska and they would still need to be inspected by whoever we designate to do that your your designated thing. And then again, I still think maybe with it that we put some teeth into the ordinance that says uh they have to can't be in the city right of way can't be on city property or city right of way without one of the one of the most common ones I see all the time is like at I think tractor supply there's one there periodically and it's on private property, right? So I mean that doesn't bother me. I don't even know that I'm necessarily opposed to certain periods of time where you could put them in a city park. We see that a lot in larger cities where they have public space for food truck days or whatever. But um

food trucks department be the sponsoring entity then and and bring them in and get the right recruit the the ones they want. Um yes. So what if it's on it's on public excuse me it's on private the down at the uh auto parts store there across from Canes. Yes. There's one that's there periodically. Yeah. Coffee truck. Yeah. Okay. So they need their license and they'd need to health check in with the health inspector I or on that one where it's based locally I would imagine once they've been inspected by the health inspector they're probably good for a period of time I think that's the way those work annual whatever

my question is like fish truck you know it comes every month two months three months they would need to be inspected every I don't I I think that's accurate we used to work with a handful of those food trucks that work Nebraska events and the health inspector would show up, but she'd basically wave at the people she knew and went on went on by. I'm gonna say they have started putting their certificate in the window. Yes, they didn't used to do that and I know the one right before they left bombard you can now see their certificate in that window. So wonderly displayed publicly displayed certificate by the state right there that you can see that certificate.

Well, and I don't mean to cut anybody off, but I what I'm hearing is we'll we'll get a draft of some proposals out to everybody and maybe we can take that up next month and look at it a little bit further. Um, before I went to all that effort, I just wanted to make sure that No, I think I think you're absolutely right. You have some input.

The rest the rest of these on here um all have to do with um essentially annexation. So, after our last big annexation and we were here for hours, I kind of went through and kind of thought, you know, there's got to be an easier way to do this. They've already got water. They've already got sewer. So, I got to talking to some other cities about, you know, if they request extension of sewer or extension of water,

can we make them request annexation? Now, they might not be eligible for annexation because they might be, you know, too far away from the city limit line, but if there was a way that we could say, if you request this, you're requesting annexation. We do that with subdivisions. subdivisions that are abuing city limits, we now require them or we have for years required them to at least request annexation. So, I just thought, why can't we do that with if they request these other services, let's just have them do that. That way, we have a friendly annexation. Now, the thing I'm kind of I'm not really worried about it, but I'm trying to figure out so if they are, you know, two blocks over from being eligible to be annexed, if we have that letter that says I request to be annexed when they become eligible, if we could just go ahead and do that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, that's kind of what the rest of these are. And I was trying to figure out, and Bill's going to have to take a look at this, too, where to put it in our code so that we don't have to change it if something updates. we need to change it. So, that's kind of where I was going with that. What do you guys think about something? Lovely idea. I like that a lot. Great idea. Yeah, it's fairly simple feedback. Okay, so onward and upward. It makes sense.

And then we do have and I don't have any regulations on these smallcale cell towers. Um there are some of those that have been coming in and the FCC regulates cell towers which we are fully aware of. Um, these small scale ones are some that are basically less than 50 feet in height. And from what I read, and I don't know if um, Bill's interpretation is that, but FCC essentially says if it's in the city right away, you have to let them do it. So like in an alley in the rightway of a road, would these be what I'm starting to see on like on city light poles, those things go around? Yeah, those are colllocation. Yeah, but some of them are actually doing freestanding. Oh,

okay. And so like the one that went behind on B and Yes. down behind the high school there. Yeah. Yeah. Behind the high school, whatever that pet store is. Used to be annexed to the Westfield. Yeah. And we from what I read in state statutes, we really can't do a whole lot about it, but we still need to be able to protect our infrastructure, protect our streets, our roads, clear vision, site, those types of things. And so I looked at I think Carney, they have one, but it's like six pages long. And so I think I gave that to Bill and said I don't want to do that.

And I haven't looked into the regulations. I did I've reviewed the state statute that does allow us. I would read it a little more broadly than what Judy has read it, which it does allow us to provide some regulation for it, but it's all subject to state and federal regulations as well. How would you control those regulations by permitting again? Okay.

And right now, since we don't have the regulations in there, we do require that they get rightway permits so we can actually see where they're going. Um, one of them, I think that one there wanted to locate essentially right on top of one of our uh power line areas and we couldn't allow them to do that, so we made him move like a few feet one way or the other. So, Right. Yeah. Exactly. Is it does it make any difference if it goes on top of a building? Um on a street location. We've got one on top of a building. I'm trying to think where it was. I've I've seen Well, it's on like a municipal light and water building somewhere.

Yeah. But they have Yeah. And that one I think was done by a conditional use quite some time ago. So, yeah, it would just depend, I guess, on the situation. So onward and upward. There you go. Okay. We'll keep digging into that one, too. Okay. Any other comments or discussion on that item? Not, we'll wait for the recommendations to come from city staff and deal with it when we can. Item number five, election of officers. Do we have to do this again? Yep. Every year. Thanks, David. Doing a great job.

Okay. You just you just got a motion. Second motion by Forbes uh seconded by Van Velson to leave it as it is. That would be uh fudge chair jet vice. We talked about appointing a secretary at some point in time because every now and again both of us are gone. We haven't had that. Yeah, it has has been a while and I think we it did come up but I think this I stepped in. Yeah, that's what we did is we had just nominated somebody to step in. Nominated to run the Okay. As long as we have a mechanism for it.

All right. We went along but we figured it out. Yeah. A chairman per promp or something. It worked out. All right. Any discussion on that matter? Not shall please. I will abstain.

Yeah. Voting against yourself. That's Yeah. Item we should have voted now. Yeah. Go for it. You can go home and say I didn't vote. I didn't vote for this. Item number six, old business. Anything for the uh for discussion here? Not on old business. Uh item number seven, new business. I just got two things. I'll be really quick. Um one is the um city historic preservation commission got a grant to do another um historic building survey. Yeah, we did.

The state Yeah, I was trying to think somebody was on here. So the state um essentially it's not going to cost the city any funding um because their time as a commission can um count for funding of that. But just kind of wanted to let you know it won't come in front of this board. It's going to be um they've already selected a consultant. So the award of the um contract to the consultant will be on the city council's agenda. Just kind of wanted to make you aware of it, but there's no requirement that you guys have to approve it. So just wanted to let you know of that. And the second thing is the NPZA um annual conference is March 3rd through the 6th. I sent everybody out an email on that. So if you're interested, you want to go, let me know. Um you'll have to make your own hotel arrangements if you do decide to go down and stay. Um I will register you for the actual conference. So let me know if you want to go to the conference and um your hotel accommodations, you'll just have to submit for reimbursement if you decide to go. It is a great conference. There's a lot on it. So

in Carney in Carney. Yeah. Carney at the conference center north. Yan's conference center north. There you go. All right. Yep. Any other new business? If not, ladies and gents, we are adjourned. Perfect. Go watch the basketball game. Go Huskers. Yeah, they're Yeah, they're