Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. I will call the meeting to order of the August 26 planning commission meeting for the city of North Platt. And roll call. Davies. Mun here. Matthews here. Bane, Fudge, Jet here, Forbes here, Warl here, and Van Bellson.

Okay. A current copy of the Open Meetings Act of Nebraska is posted at the back of the council chambers. Item number two on the agenda for this evening is to approve the minutes of the July 22nd, 2025 meeting and August 5th, 2025 special meeting. would entertain a motion for those. Move. Second.

Okay. Motion and second. Any discussion? All right. Clicker vote. Oh, sorry, Michelle. Okay. And the minutes have been approved. Um, item number three on the agenda for this evening is a public hearing. The rules of a public hearing are as follows. Planning Commission values your input and wants to hear from the audience during public hearings. Anyone wishing to sneak speak must be first recognized by the chair. Once recognized, please approach the podium, state your name and address, and please keep your comments to no more than three minutes. Repetitive and excessively long testimony may be ended at the discretion of the chair. Item number three on the agenda is file number CU25-00005. discuss and consider application on on an application by Dan Lex Property Group LLC for a conditional use permit to allow apartments in a commercial building located at 1404 and 1420 Rodeo Road in a B2 highway commercial district on property described as lot 2 Gary's Replat and lands inside part of the north half southwest quarter northeast quarter section 321430 30 and part of the southwest half southwest quarter southeast quarter section 291430 Northplot Lincoln County Nebraska. Judy.

Okay. And you should have all received a copy of the review comments. Attached to that is a justification provided by the applicant and a couple of different location maps. As stated, the applicant is requesting to use the area for long-term apartments. The property is currently being used as long-term rentals, but during the process of requesting micro tiff, it was discovered that the previous owner had not requested a change in use. No new structures will need to be built. They hope to increase occupancy through rehabilitation and remodeling of the existing apartments. North Plat is in desperate need of affordable housing, especially with the influx of new employees in the area, and this will offer a quick addition of almost 30 units in the next 60 to 90 days. Planning staff has no objections to the conditional use application. The property is currently and has been used as long-term rentals for more than 12 years. The project will increase the amount of available and affordable housing units in the northwest portion of the city, which will be a benefit to the community and should not be a detriment to the surrounding property owners as the use will not change. Um, I do have a motion to either approve or deny if you want to use that motion or feel free to make your own.

Okay. At this time, the public hearing is open. Anybody wishing to speak on this item is welcome to do so. And I do apologize a uh representative of the applicant is here. So good afternoon. Thank you for having us. Name address, please.

My name is Jody Hines. Uh current address is 9421 Lake View Drive. I am the owner of Gateway Realy. I'm also the John general contractor on this project. And I think it would be good for you to know what we're doing there as far as the updates. Um we have we have four buildings there and two of them needed extensive sewer um repair. Uh one building has been completed. When that sewer repair was completed in that building, which included the floors removed, complete sewer um installation and the cleanup was done by Puro Clean and now those floors have been repaired. We have laid new flooring, painted, put in new fixtures, uh counters, some of them didn't have counters or cupboards, new appliances, and so we are just finishing up our sixth apartment on the it'd be the third building. We call it building C. We will next start with building D which is a fourth building that will have a complete sewer uh repair also. Those folks will be moved to other parts of the building and those floors will be removed. There'll be cleanup done by Puro Clean. Waldingers will go in and complete the sewer in that building. We are putting in in the other two buildings also we're remodeling every apartment. And then when that is all completed we will be painting the building. We will be um we're fixing some of the awnings and we'll put a laundromat in the end where the glass um and I don't know what it used to be, but there'll be an uh laundromat in there for the tenants and we feel that these people um need a little bit better housing. So, that's why we're remodeling it. Dan has been very um generous in letting us do that

or help helping us do that. and the need for housing we are finding at Gateway daily that is is just extreme. Okay, any questions for Jody? How many units or how many total apartments are there? Well, we will when we're done, Kurt, we'll have 51.

We do not have 51 now. Some of them have not uh been used for a long time. Some of them are studs only, but we have a crew that are working there now on them. And we have oh 31 that we have full. So we have 20 that we have. And we're also at the same time have been working on um we've had a couple tenants leave for for different reasons. So we'll make sure that um they're paying their rent and and things are kept clean. We have a permanent mowing solution and for weeds over there now. Um so we're trying to get things cleaned up also.

The utilities are separate or they included in we we we include some of the utilities and then the trash. We have new dumpsters over there. If you drive by we have some new dumpsters. So we're we're working on it. I mean it's a process. Um, it took us quite a few months to get or quite a few weeks to get six done. Um, but we do have a crew that works over there full-time and um, I have high hopes for it. It's been really interesting for me. I have never done anything like that, so it's been a learning for me, but I go over there every day and um, I feel good about what we're doing.

Anything else for Jody? Okay. Thank you, Jody. Thank you. Anybody else wish to speak on item number three?

Hi, my name is Peter Ward uh 30001 right Avenue here in town. Um I serve as assistant pastor with the North Plat Baptist Church uh which currently owns the properties directly west and north of the property in question, 1404 and 1420 Rodeia Road, which are uh owned by the Dan Lakes Property Group. and we own um over the years we've invested a significant amount of time and effort into our properties and done a lot of improvement over there. I'm sure you all uh have seen that. Uh but and we continue to work hard to maintain the appearance and condition of that. Now, when we first moved over to that property, the the at those apartments, the trash dumpers were uh located where they are currently placed. Um, and we found that constantly we were having to deal with a bunch of trash that kept blowing across the road. Um, many times uh during the week we would just go through and have to pick up uh trash all along the front of our property along the highway there. And most of that was because the tenants there wouldn't bag their trash properly and it was thrown into there and then the winds would just whip it out. Um, our pastor had taken some time and gone to the old uh owners that number of years ago and they through that discussion had moved those dumpsters to the back of the property and that seemed to significantly increase uh well to significantly help that situation and the trash level went down con uh a great deal after that. Um and then of course uh I I actually uh it's funny that you just got up and and put those dumpsters. They're great dumpsters out front. Um, but we fear that the placement of those dumpsters might result in the same uh situation where that trash is just going to be blown up and down the highway again and most of it just goes to the north on what it seems along there. Anyway, um we also have had a continuous problem with the tenants of that property. Um, the tenants have crossed our properties

time and again in using uh whatever way they seem fit to cross over the grass area or and not using sidewalks and that kind of thing. Um, they cut across the lawns and are frequently on our property without permission resulting in an ongoing trespassing issue and a lack of respect for property boundaries. We recently invested time and money in putting a fence to help address this issue. But it also created another problem. We had a tenant uh from that property try and tie a hammock to our fence and we confronted the tenant and they and took it down for them, but they put it back up. So, we had a little bit of back and forth between that. And again, that's not anything to do with uh the owners there, but uh we have had some issues with the tenants that were over there. Um uh we recognize this process may that this process may be more of a formality and since the property has already been operating as apartments. However, we respectfully request that you consider adding conditions to this permit that will benefit not only our property but the city as a whole. Because the owners are receiving micro funding for their upgrades, it seems both reasonable and within your authority to require improvements that provide a clear benefit to the community. And that's that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak on item?

Sam Furer. Um I'm with Gateway Realy. My address is 817 and a half West F Street. Um so uh been in the property management department um going on a little more than a decade with Gateway Realy and um absolutely hearing those concerns. What I love about this now is it has a dedicated on-site property management company out of North Plat and so if the community does have concerns like the dumpsters and stuff, we are always available and we are looking forward to addressing any of those needs. Uh the dumpsters that are up front are actually Shaven's dumpsters that are going to be picked up. We have Rooster now doing the service and we've actually increased the um pickup time. We've doubled it so that hopefully they won't get as full and there won't be so much issues. So, we're really looking forward to addressing so many concerns of any of the neighbors and um continuing just to to better that to make it something that really has um a structured long-term management company looking at its welfare. But one thing I really want to address, and this is for this only, but also just to put a bug in your ear, is that we are seeing historic growth, and it's so neat. I love all the hype that's around it, but we're boots on the ground people. We are having anywhere from 15 to 25 people come into our office in the evening coming from Sustainable Beef, um, who are looking for places, who plead with us because they've been sleeping in their cars for a week. You know, it's great when the chamber sends out that letter and it says, "Look at all the development. Beverage will be breaking ground in six months." I have people who need a room today. It is an imminent need. The um connection is calling us saying, "Do not send them our way. They are employed. They don't meet our requirements." So, I think that yes, all the all the structures that are going to be going up are wonderful. We welcome all kinds of new growth. We focus on

single family homes and we're expanding that at Gateway, but that doesn't serve all of our needs. And so we need places like this that have imminent turnaround so that we can service the growth that we're seeing. We're not seeing growth in 6 to9 months. We're seeing additional growth, but we need something for today's growth. and these existing structures, not only does it help continue in a expedited way to um you know uplift facelift our community, it's giving an immediate need. The minute I we are estimating turnaround when we have these studio to one-bedroom efficiency apartments, we will have them rented in three to five business days at the most. And honestly, a lot of that's going to be our logistical turnaround, not the need. And so, just really would love the focus to be on how we help this imminent need that we have right now. Our rental list, um, out of the 300 and some active properties we currently have, uh, we have four to five on our list. Um, it it's just the turnover is crazy. We're averaging 45 applications a month. Um and so when you only have now we do have another north plaque complex and we are servicing some people. One thing I do want to also say is what we are primarily seeing from sustainable beef is they are either wanting a larger place with multiple people in it or they're wanting very cost-effective a lot what we have on their market is is higher than what they were seeing in Lexington in Grand Island um in the JBS plants that they were seeing in Texas. and that's a lot of where we're seeing these applications come from. So, we really are trying to find a way to service not only have stuff available, but also the stuff that's going to fit their needs. So, thank you so much for for listening to those opinions.

Thank you, Sam. Anyone else wishing to speak on item number three? Okay. Would entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Make a motion to close public hearing. Second. Okay. Motion and seconded. Any discussion? All right. Click vote.

Uh and with that, the public hearing is now closed. We'll discuss around the table. I think it's a good project. It'll make it better than what it was. I mean, it's uplifting to see that something that's been sitting there that long with the kind of tenants that were in there, this will actually draw better tenants, better people, clean it up a bit. I I would imagine the conforming to all applicable ordinances, laws, and regulations covers things like not necessarily trash, but you know, keeping it in good standing condition.

Yeah, we do have nuisance ordinances for weeds, trash. Yeah, there we go. I was I was just going to add we we already have all of those things in place which every property owner needs to comply with, but conditional use permit. The teeth that go along with that is that you could if you're not complying with those conditions, then the conditional use can be revoked. Okay? And so it kind of it imposes that much more um responsibility upon the property owner to ensure that those things are happening because if they run into problems with that kind of stuff, they risk losing the ability to use their property for what's what the conditional use permits.

That's not Thank you. And as they mentioned, it'll be nice to have it locally managed, too. Yes, exactly. As far as the dumpster, is there an alley? Um, not really. I mean, you can look there, but I don't see path, but there's I don't know if it's dedicated alley. Yeah, it's back behind on the south side. Um, if it's just an or I'm not sure if it's open. I'd have to check that out, but it is back there. something that would be simply enclosure to enclose the trash can. I mean that and if you look over on I think they can get to it on the east end too

and you c you could require a trash enclosure is one of your conditions if you want to [Music] I don't feel like getting that technical is needed as long as you know we have the ordinances in place and like um our attorney said uh there's really a almost a higher standard, you know, for for a conditional use permit. So, I'm fine without adding that much government overreach to that get that specific

entirely up to you. There is a proposed motion if someone would like to. Um, I move that we find the request for a conditional use permit to allow apartments in a commercial building located at 1404 and 1420 Rodeo Road meets the minimum standard stated in the North Plac code of ordinances section 156 322 and approve and grant the conditional use permit requested with the condition that all elements of the application are complied with based on the following factual findings. Means one. The you shall conform to all applicable ordinances, laws, and regulations of any governmental jurisdiction. The you shall have adequate water, sewer, and drainage facilities. Ingress and egress shall be so designated as to minimize traffic congestion in the public streets. The use in all other respects conform to the applicable regulations of the district in which it is located. that you shall be in harmony with character of the area and the most appropriate use of land.

Second. Okay. Motion in a second. Any more discussion? All right. Clicker vote. And that item does pass. It will go on to the city council meeting um through a public hearing process again on September 2nd. Yep. Okay. Item number four, old business. Any old business? I believe the city attorney wanted to speak.

Okay. Um, yes, we have uh some revisions to the RV uh regulations that we previously discussed um that we've had members of the public raise some issues with. Uh and so we've been working on those changes and we're running them through and getting feedback from other city departments. And so I anticipate that we'll have those on the next uh planning commission agenda uh in September to be able to review and pass along with any further comments to city council. Okay. Thank you, Bill. Any new business? Um I don't have anything right now.

Okay. Hearing none, we are adjourned. Thank you everyone.