Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We got five minutes.

Every chair is taken. Every chair is taken. They uh beat and they've been in games every pretty much every game and we're head like they were hit by 10 and lo but they beat Garden City who had not lost the game. They're unbeaten city I don't think they play. It'll be like I was going to say it'll be like when we were in grade school. I don't know why more people don't go. I know they usually have

between watching that or watching school that takes all our time so I never get to any y high school and I'm talking St. hats. I watch they do something that high.

They only won two games last year. There you go. playing class a um yes and I believe it was denied because or it was table exactly but we denied it or tabled it I went to watch his daughter play and so I was standing in the doorway as the boys ran out

saw you know looked at the roster and this guy's supposed to be 6'4 and this guy's supposed to be 65 Wait a minute. I'm looking down at the top of your head. You're not 6'4. You're not. Sorry. They lie a little bit. Yeah. Have their elevator shoes on. Boys in Nebraska. Nebraska. Who? University. I don't care really. I know.

Oh, yeah. Girls play seven. You care for their product. I watch them. Guess that's why my sons didn't come home today is because must be a home game maybe. Yeah. For the boys it is. I watch the women play. They're I like They're kind of fun to They're fun to watch. 50 bucks. My boys get these tickets there. Is that right? That's awesome. What did I see? Why would you not go? And they do. They go to a lot of games. They have a lot. They got all they went to all those games last year where they and Josh has video of running out on the court when they won. They upset that number one Purdue.

He's got video out there on the court when they gone to their fun to go to. I do not like that storm court. I've been in them. So the players Oh, I'm sure. Holy crap. That is that's scary. I'm sure. I just You want to get You want to get the people just just getting feel like you're going to get crushed or crampled. Oh, I'm sure exhausting. Yeah. I would like I guess you're having fun. Yeah.

How did I see that volleyball game? They put up a graphic on there that said it was $700 a ticket. Oh yeah. Volleyball game away game seven. My sister, she's coached well she's coached volleyball 25 years over in Colorado. First big volleyball game. She always her and my mom and my sister always go to a high school game volleyball game every year. They always go somewhere. Like last year they went out to Penn State and they saw like Penn State. They made two games out there. This year they went out to USC and UCLA but they're like tickets are 20 bucks. Yeah. and they're 4 or 500, you know, if I'm lucky, if you can get one.

They flew out to California, spent the weekend. They went to the game on Friday, went to did a bunch of touring on Saturday in Los Angeles, then went to the game on All right. Welcome to the uh November 25th, 2025 city North Plat Planning Commission meeting. Welcome all. First item on the agenda is roll call. Davies here. Mun here. Matthews here. Bane here, Fudge here, Jet here, Forbes here, WHL here, Benson here, Cororum is present, and a full house.

Happy turkey week. Uh, item number two, approved minutes of the October 20th, 2025 meeting. I trust you read them all intently, as you always do. Took me a little while. They're a little bit lengthy this time. I'd make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Motion by Bane, seconded by Davies to approve the minutes as presented. Any discussion on the matter? No. Shall please. Oh, our TV's TV's off. So, I'm trying to get We can look behind us. Oh, we do have it up. There.

We have other TVs. All right. Okay. and the um sorry I have to look behind me to see whether or not but yes it passes. All righty. Item number three, file number SU25-022, discussion consider action on an application by Midwest Land Development LLC for preliminary and final approval of Fritz Farm second subdivision located at 1120 Andy Avenue through 11:09 Gwen Avenue in a PR3 planning uh planned residential district on property described as block 2 Fritz Farm's first subdivision, North Plat, Lincoln County, Nebraska. Judy.

Okay. And we saw this original subdivision um several years ago. This is out where the new um East Francis Street is going to be located. Um this was a Pulisac area. Originally, it was divided for um single family lots and that's what you um can kind of see there in that preliminary plat. what they're looking at doing is attached um duplexes. So essentially they're going to reconfigure it to where they can split those lots right down the middle where the duplexes are going to go. So um they are losing a couple of lots technically but um almost the same amount of buildings out there but they'll be duplexes instead of single family. So that's all we're doing with that one is just reconfiguring existing. So if you have any questions, the applicant is not here, but I am happy to answer any or try and answer those.

Did they just get some updated data that showed that this was a need for housing or um they've been on that? Yeah, they've been looking at it a lot for quite some time ever since they did that and they just thought it would be more um efficient for them if they did some duplex housing also. Um the first two lots kind of at the bottom of both of those culde-sacs are going to be single family. They'll be single family in the interior, but they just felt there was a need for duplexes on the exterior. So yes, long answer. Sorry. Any other discussion? Which uh which ones have been split? I'm not.

So, if you look at that first one, you can kind of see a little bubble around the out. It's the exterior lots. So, kind of this bubble area labeled block two. Yeah. Block two. Those are all going to be changing, right? The horseshoe. Yeah. The outside of the horseshoe. The outside of the horseshoe. What are what are we splitting here? So, essentially those were all wider lots for single family. So, they're just going to make them very small for duplexes so that the lot line can go through so that you can buy and sell each side of the duplex. So, you can sell half a house.

Do lots I mean people come and take care of lawns if there's any chain. So with these, they aren't going to be mutual land. What they're looking at is essentially just selling each side. So you would be responsible for your own lot. So the lot line will go down the common wall. Yeah. Whereas if they did it in a condominium type, you wouldn't have two lots. You just have one lot. Okay. Double structure and then it would be common areas. But where it's an actual physical lot. Okay. Isn't there typically though an HOA jet?

Crane Court and Christristen Court both have I mean HOAs but you don't have to. Okay. I mean you can build it however I would prefer they did but right cuz you then you have roof I mean kind of digressing usually go to people that would want lawn care and snow care. Yeah. But we don't that's not that's not what we're saying. We're getting a little we're getting a little deeper into So I resend my question. I move to make a recommendation to approve file number SU25-022 preliminary and final approval of Fritz Farm second subdivision.

Second, everybody's just tonight. Uh motion by Davey, seconded by Matthews to approve, recommend approval, I should say. We we don't get to approve, we get to recommend approval. Any discussion on the matter? Uh it does look like the uh the preliminary flat had some access roads and up in the various places um or at least maybe they were alleys. I don't know. But uh now it's not. That's all uh solid beated land with uh

Yes, there are no alleys in between anything or on the north or south side. Um it looks like there's an easement or two going through there. Yeah, there was there's an easement couple of easements I think uh on the final one I'm trying to see where it is

which are very typical for that big of a deal. Um, there's easements in the front front yard for your utilities. In the rear, there's some easements for the re utilities, but no, there's nothing that would be an alley, per se. Any more questions? Not Michelle, please. Oh, you you're way ahead of me. Sorry. And the motion passes. Item number four, discussion consider action on preliminary and final approval of Chase subdivision located at 802 East Walker Road in an I1 light industrial district on property described as lot 5 block 2 Sue Meadows second edition in North Plat Lincoln County, Nebraska. Judy. Okay. So, just to confuse your worse on this, the information that I attached to you, I attached a preliminary of one plat and a final of the other. So, I laid around the correct final um on the desk. It's Chase subdivision is what we're looking at, not Clemens. Clemens was out in the county. So, um the preliminary and then the new final that I provided for you. So,

ignore that one. ignore the one that's attached and look at the one that I set around in front of the desk. Um, this subdivision will split um, one lot into two lots. Um, the lots have access to city utilities. There was a petition for paving that was filed because that is required when there when it abuts a gravel road. Um, all neighboring property owners were opposed to the paving. So, planning staff has no objection to the subdivision. Um, again, it's just a simple lot split.

You have any questions? I'm happy on the north side. On the south side, there's really nothing there. It's an empty lot, so they're probably splitting it off to sell off or Yes. get something built there. The green houses are on the north half, right? Yes, that is correct. Okay. And they're splitting it north and south. That is correct. North F, South F.

Any other questions? I move to make a recommendation to approve file number SU25-023, preliminary and final approval of Chase subdivision. Second. Motion by Bane, seconded by Jet to recommend approval the city council. Any more discussion on that one? Oh sh please on you. And the motion passes.

Okay. Uh the first of three public hearings tonight is item number five. Public hearing discuss consider action on annexation. Well, these are fun of government owned land into the corporate limits of the city north plat parcel ID's number 005360.40 0023770.00 Null. Null 0020005 uh 06 0055172.00 0055171.00 0055171.05 055171.10 0055290.00 0055295.00 00 as surveyed, platted, and recorded by the Lincoln County Register of Deeds. Judy.

Okay. And you should have all received a copy of the review comments. Attached to that are several maps um indicating the properties and um their proximity to city limits. Um these are governmentowned properties, so they're either owned by the city of North Plat or um by another governmental entity. Um most of them are city of north flat ownership. And so just to run through why annexation is good. Annexation promotes orderly development of a community. Helps ensure long-term go growth. It can increase a city's population and tax base which can make services more affordable for all residents. Helps to ensure that those living in an area outside city limits that use city facilities and services contribute to the tax burden. It improves planning and zoning by allowing for better city-wide planning for future development, including transportation, parks, and schools. Planning and zoning along with code enforcement is used to protect property values and prevent blight. Annexation can lead to additional development opportunities and increase resale value of properties that may not otherwise be appealing for future development. And it can provide equity for taxpayers, clarity of service areas for maintenance and emergency response, allowing for continued growth of North Plat in an efficient and orderly fashion, increased population increases, possible economic development and funding opportunities, and lane miles increase allowing for additional road development funding options. Planning staff has identified these 11 parcels for immediate annexation. The proposed annexations are urban in character. They're abudding and adjacent to current city limits. The proposed annexation areas consist of approximately 51.97 acres. Planning staff does recommend the proposed annexations. Um, again, one of the biggest things is this is city-owned property. Why it was

not already within the city limits, I have no idea. Um, I feel like most city-owned property, if it abuts city limits, it should be within the corporate limits of the city. um the area along the river. A good reason to have that in city limits um is because that's where a lot of um police enforcement issues occur with um people camping in the river, those types of things. So that just makes the jurisdiction a little bit easier. Um if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer those. But again, all city- owned property. So So it goes to the basic geographic center line of the river. Yes. Is that where you're going?

Yes. Okie dokie. Uh, this is a public hearing, the first of three. So, I'm going to read a set of guidelines for the public hearings. I'm only going to read these once because nobody likes to hear me talk. Uh, planning commission values your input and wants to hear from the audience during the public hearing. Anybody wishing to speak must first be recognized by the chair. Once recognized, please approach the podium. State your name and address. Please keep your comments as brief as possible. Repetitive and excessively long testimony may be ended at the discretion of the chair. And with that, the public hearing is open. Anybody want to talk on this one? Going once. Going twice. I make a motion to close the public hearing. Second.

Motion by Jet, seconded by Davies to close the public hearing. Any discussion on that motion? If not, Michelle, please. And the public hearing is now closed. Any discussion on proposed annexation? I think I'm going to have to stay in this. Okay. The second sheet that has a little triangle-shaped piece and I'm assuming that little chunk that's kind of chunked out there on the along 13th Street was not part of the government property. So therefore, it's not being annexed in.

Yes. The city does not own those two little lots and so at this time we just felt like we would just take the city owned property and same reason on the river not to go to South River Road not to go all the way. Yeah. Because um typically accretions on the south go with the property on the south accretions on the north. So essentially about in the center of the river is the property on the south side privately owned then south of the river. Yes. Um one on Lake View. Is that the one where we were discussing

tower site out there? Yes. Yep. City owned property abut city limits. Any more discussion? I may I move to make a recommendation to annex into the corporate limits of the city of North Plat 11 parcels as described in planning commission materials. Second.

Motion by Jet, seconded by Davies to recommend annexation of this proposed land. Any more discussion on the matter? Not Michelle, please. And the motion is approved 80 with uh Whirl abstaining. Okay. Item number six on the agenda tonight is another public hearing file number CU25-00007. discuss and consider action on an application by Lakeside Campground Holding Company LLC for an amendment to a conditional use permit to allow additional storage units located at 3800 Hadley Drive uh in a B2 highway commercial district on property described as part of parcel 2 section 11 township 13 north range 30 west in section 14 township 13 north range 30 west of the six prime meridian north platon county Nebraska Judy

okay and You should have all received a copy of the review comments. Attached to that is um a justification and a site plan provided by the applicant. As stated, the applicant is requesting to build additional storage facilities primarily to be used for the storage of recreational vehicles. There should be no impact to the economic character of the area and it will provide an increase in property tax or assessed value. The existing conditional use permit allows two had allowed for two storage unit building buildings, excuse me, and they are now asking to allow for construction of additional units. Planning staff has no objections to the conditional use application. This is an amendment to an existing conditional use that was approved in October of 2022. The application proposes adding four additional recreational vehicle storage buildings. The property is located in a commercial district and currently serves as a recreational vehicle campground, including additional storage buildings for recreational vehicles. Should not be a detriment to the surrounding property owners. Um, if you have any questions, the applicant is in the audience and I'm also here to answer those if need be.

Okay. And with that, the public hearing is open. Anybody want to talk about this one? Going once, going twice. To close the public hearing. Second.

Motion by Davey, seconded by Jet to close the public hearing. Any discussion on that motion? Not good. And with that, the public hearing is closed. All right. Discussion. The lone piece of feedback I had on this potential blocking of you as as you're coming into the community. And is that really the first thing people want to see is storage units coming into there? I was like, how do we get into this? Maybe nice murals or something.

That was my same thought, too. And plus, they are awfully bright lights that shine right at you. But the two already block what you see. So, I mean, it's not going to change by adding. So, I figured out that the thing was upside down to my Yeah, the south on the south. Okay. Yeah, I don't like the anticipated aesthetics either, but it's their property. I don't think it blocks the view of anything. I think I think it'd be better used as a

prop to worry about that. Anyway, I that was feedback that was emailed to me. I just want to share with the group. as a frequent camper there. I actually like it. It cuts down on the noise. I wonder. Yeah, it probably blocks the interstate for the campers. Just saying. So, have your ying and yang there. Yeah. One after the other.

Okay. Any more discussion? I move that we find the request for conditional use permit to allow four additional recreational vehicle storage units located at 3800 Hadley Drive meets the minimum standard stated in Northpl code of ordinances section 156.322 and approve and grant the conditional use permit requested with the conditions that all elements of the application are complied with based on the following factual findings. The use shall conform to all applicable ordinances, laws, and regulations of any governmental jurisdiction. The use shall have adequate water, sewer, and drainage facilities. Ingress and egress shall be so designed as to minimize traffic congestion in the public streets. The use shall, in all other respects, conform to applicable regulation of the district in which it is located. The you shall be in harmony with the character of the area and the most appropriate use of the land.

There a second. Second motion by Bane, seconded by Jet to recommend approval. Any more discussion on the matter? Is this currently in the city limits? Yes. Not Michelle, please. And the recommendation is made. Good luck. This will go to city council. So you will have to be at that meeting on December 2nd.

All right. File, see item number seven is another public hearing. File number CU25-00008. Discussion consider action on application by Premier Energy LLC purchaser and J. Bowl LLC owner for a conditional use permit to allow construction of a commercial solar farm located at the intersection of Victoria Lane and East State Farm Road and an A1 transitional agricultural district on property described as part of the east halfsoutheast quarter of section 16 township 13 north range 30 west to the sixth prime meridian located in Northplot Lincoln County Nebraska Judy.

Okay. And you should have all received a copy of the review comments. Attached to that is the justification and the entire application. As stated by the applicant, solar voltaic photovoltaic collection system will be installed to convert solar energy and to deliver it to the subtransmission system of North Plat Municipal Light and Water. The property may be subdivided in the future for commercial light use industrial use along State Farm Road andor Victoria Lane. There will be no there will be additional traffic to accommodate the three-month period of construction. During operations, there will be no vehicle traffic coming to the facility on most days. Solar generation is very compatible and will fit in with the economic character of the area. It is very quiet, generates no dust, and will subtly shift the direction that the panels face over the course of the day. Solar energy production within the city of Northplat represents a cost-effective means to reduce wholesale power purchases from Nebraska Public Power District. These savings will benefit all rate pairs of municipal light and water. Um again, the justification and I hope that you did read through all of that and the um application are attached. Planning staff has no objections to the conditional use application. and this is located in an area that is surrounded by industrial and agricultural uses and should not be a detriment to the surrounding property owners. Um, additionally, you were supplied also with um a kind of a presentation um last week I believe that I did send that on forward to everybody. So, um with that, the applicant is in the audience and I'll be happy to answer questions if I can.

Is the plan zoned as currently? It is currently zoned A. Okay. That's what I think I thought it was. Yeah. Uh full disclosure, I did meet uh with a representative from the applicant. Um we went over the project. Um which is why I requested that the materials be sent out plenty early so everybody had time to review them. This will be the first time we see something like this. So just for the record, um I met with that individual one-on-one and wanted that material in everybody's hands so you had plenty of time to read through it. So, um, and with that, the public hearing is now open. Anyone want to talk on this one?

Going once, going twice. Make a motion we close public hearing. Second. Motion by Bane, seconded by Mchuan to close the public hearing. Any discussion? Not. And the public hearing is now closed. Chair reserves the right to call folks from the audience to visit about this if the group feels like they need to. Okay. All right. Can you do that?

I just said I could. Who who's responsible for insuring these things? That's a really good question. Probably whoever owns it in the end. Yep. Responsible for what? Insuring it. Because I've seen what the one in Scotsluff looked like after a hailtorm. I've seen the one in Koad, what it looked like after a severe hail stom. They were sh just absolutely destroyed. Destroyed. Yeah. And I think as I visited with a couple of members of the council and um the mayor, that's one of their primary concerns is

and I think there is a decommissioning plan in this material. Um so that's obviously a factor that we need to consider is how that gets dealt with. This says that savings will benefit all rateayers and according to the article in the bulletin the costs are going to be higher. So where it says that it will benefit all rateayers that is coming from the applicant. Just so you understand that that did not come from me even though I read it. Just I'm just Yeah. I just want to make sure

that that's what the article and um city administrator did calculations and it's almost double for the solar. It's going to be cost the rate of users more end user more and beyond that the tax credits they get are significant. This organization There's no requirement that any power generated by that is purchased by the city. Is there is there a contract already in place for that or any kind of requirement? There's somebody here from is Flight and Water. Correct. Yes.

Come on up. Name, rank, and files. Tony Miller, utility manager for the city of North Plat Municipal Land and Water. There any contract? There is no contract at this time.

If they build this, what obligation does the city, what obligation could be created for the city to get it connected to the distribution system? Would that expense be on the developer or would it be on is there some way it could wind up costing taxpayers? according to the plan um that is included in the cost of the system. So that would be on the developer

developer. So what happens when the the due to the cost of construction and loan servicing and all that stuff that their product the electricity that they would generate from that facility uh they can't sell it for anything but twice the cost of what it what the city gets now from NPPD or wherever that wherever the city buys its power from and everything that we went off of is all done based on estimates. Yeah. Um so yeah, if the cost of construction is more, the cost goes up at that point.

What it becomes cost prohibitive. They they have they have the ability to generate power, but nobody wants to buy it because the other sources that we have now are they go out of business cheaper. That's for them to answer, I guess, because that's on the owner of the of the station. Buies their product. Nobody. They don't sell any product. Okay. I'm I'm curious though, will there be an agreement with the city prior to them constructing the facility as I'm wondering if that's one of their preconditions prior to construction?

So, the city has two options. The city can either own the own the um facility or the city can buy the power through an SBP. from the way I understand the the information that's provided to us. There is no contract. Um and that's then the the solar field would be owned by a by investors at that point if we were to buy just the the electricity from them or NPPD could buy it or MPPPD. Right. It doesn't have to just be the city of North Plaque. Correct.

Correct. That's the way I understand it. Is he only buying this lot if we allow him to do the solar or is he buying the lot with or without the solar project? That may be a question that we may want to ask him, but I do believe the purchase is contingent upon. But

the applicant is here if you want to ask him some questions. Anybody want to You want to ask that question? Yes. Would you come on up, sir? Name and address, please. Sure. Jeff Cook Coyle. I'm the chief project development officer for Premier Energy. The address is 3320 James Road, Grand Island. Thank you, sir. Go ahead, Angie. So, are you guys going to purchase the lot whether or not the solar goes in or not?

No. There's a number of conditions that we need to meet before we would close on the lot and having those include a conditional use permit. We are not going to move forward without a conditional use permit. Um an interconnection agreement with the city. We're not going to um proceed unless there is a clear path to um uh you know interconnect to the city's electrical system and what we call an offtaker someone that it will um be purchasing the power from the system. We won't proceed unless we know that the system will be uh you know is is going to pay for itself. you have these systems somewhere else.

This will be we we typically we work as a developer as a service. We're working with Midwest Electric on four systems that they're building in um uh in Grant in uh sorry in Perkins and Brule counties. And we're working with Loop Valley's rural public power district on four buildings that their system that four systems they're building in Valley and Sherman in Wheeler counties. And uh we're uh we've been working with South Central Power public power district on systems for uh Knuckles and uh Webster counties. the eventual ownership of this is still kind of up in the air. Correct.

Yeah. That this it's a perfect place for a solar system. You know, the fact that there are no that, you know, there there are not people here in the public protesting it. It's not, you know, that's not something you run into with every solar farm. So, this is in our minds, it's a good place to be putting a project like this. and we want to, you know, we're a Nebraska company. We want to maximize benefits for Nebraskans. And so gave city first opportunity to be the biggest beneficiary from it. And right now, it appears that that isn't something that uh municipal light and water and the council want to take on, which is fine. And then that means we'll be entering into a power purchase agreement either on terms that uh the the city finds favorable um or as working with the city kind of on a pass through of the electricity to commercial industrial customers in the city that have an have a corporate uh need for the green energy credits. And there's also a chance it could be owned by another utility besides municipal light and water. I guess North Plat is unique compared to some of the other

that you described where we have hydro out here. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we've got hydro that runs runs down the hill and generates electricity with the water that's also being used for irrigation. Sure. So that's pretty reasonable uh generation of electricity I think. So you know here we're going to enter into something that's going to be much more expensive for the user or proposed. That's probably not our I mean we just need to know if it meets or again you're you're kind of getting into getting into some weeds here. I think our role is does it fit? Does it fit? I think that's what we're being asked to consider. Judy, is that correct?

That is correct. That is correct. Council, I'm not Your concerns are reasonable, but we have a planning and zoning task to examine here and let the economics work out themselves. I think um and I think the council will have their say on whether or not they think the economics will work for the city. And maybe they already have. Uh, kind of sounds like Jeff's gotten some feedback to that extent. So, any other questions for Jeff while he's here? I'm sorry. I don't mean to leave you hanging there.

No, that that's that's fine. I I hope it's okay that I've remained at the the microphone. I um I I would like to address the hail. That is certainly a valid concern. Um first, the the system in Scots Bluff, which was pummeled, was back online within a few months. that it's not the end. It's not just the project is done and that's it. It's no, you know, it's like if a house is, you know, if your roof is damaged by hail, you work with the insurance company and you get the roof replaced. And it's, you know, if your solar panels are damaged by hail, you work with the insurance company and you get the the solar panels replaced. It's the same very much the same idea. Um, and I guess the only other thing is I wanted to emphasize, you know, without a relationship that the the conditional use permit comes before the relationship with the city because it gives us more leeway. The reason we're coming to you now first is because, you know, a major company in town, you know, they say, "Oh, yeah, we'd love, you know, we have corporate obligations for solar. Do you have sight control?" Yes. Do you have a conditional use permit? Yes, you know, we want to have those things in place before we go, you know, so that the project is real and can happen um you know, efficiently when when when it's time to have those discussions.

Just just to walk everybody through walk our group through that. Sure. So, a company that may or may not be located here today may have a need for green energy credits and may agree to purchase the power at a premium because there's a credit on the back side of it for sure. Yeah,

that is am I understanding that correct? That's that's one of the one one of the ways that that uh that it could go um that or it could be a company that isn't located here and it is located somewhere else in Nebraska and is getting the you know still getting the green credits from this project. I guess okay but it's not likely to be for a prospective at this point. It would be one thing if the city controlled the project, then the city could use the tax the green credits for that, but if the city doesn't control the product project, then whoever owns the project is going to have their own use for the green credits.

Got it. So, as far as around this though, do you guys build a fence or Yes. So, you'll have a like a chain link fence around the whole thing to keep everybody out and protected. Right. Right. Right. just like you know it would be consistent with the other uh electric department facilities. Yeah, that's what I was wondering. We were over and we met with the neighbors today. They are not able to be here tonight because of uh some other engagements, but they were we had a they were grateful to to meet us and uh hear about our plans and they are hoping to be at the city council meeting next week.

Any questions for Jeff? Um there there's no noise. I just curious what there Yes, there is some some noise that the that the solar panels are operate on what's DC like a flashlight. You don't plug it into the wall. There's a battery that is a DC electric and the electric grid of course is AC and you have to convert from the DC to the AC and those um there'll be 25 pieces of equipment that do that and they do make noise and we'll be will be citing the inverters that's what they're called so that they're the noise level will be 45 dB or less at the at the neighbor's house.

Okay. So what's what's 45 dB equivalent to just pretty quiet they used to say like a refrigerator in the next room but now refrigerators are silent so okay thank you the uh the use currently is for um fish hatchery ponds on the west and agricultural to the east and is that just additional agriculture cultural right now where it's uh they're they're uh growing weeds present not like marijuana weeds just like unlivated weed, right? Yes. Uhhuh.

The county has to go and treat it a couple times a year and send a bill to the land owner. And that is one Yeah. Okay. That's one residence right next to it. That's correct. And I guess we'll find out if they have any questions or concerns. I did not get a phone call so I don't know if that means anything. But those are the people you talked to was keeps. Yeah. They were hoping to stop by. You've met them a couple times, Judy. Yeah. Um and the noise is basically a hum. A wine. Higher than a hum.

Not a whistle. No, not a whistle. Not a home. Between a whistle and a home. Any other questions? Like, sure. Um, why a farm? I know this is going to be, you know, like no one's saw this before, but uh, you know, why don't you, if you need green energy and you're coming to town, like why don't you put the solar panels on your own building and just utilize that or like why a farm? Great. That's a It's a great question. It's because it's so much more cost effective to have it centralized. Okay.

You can It's two to three times more cost effective to put it in one location than separated on people's houses. Not you know because I'm like just be nice if we all could put one on our house. There you go. Right. But okay. So yeah can but it's cost effectiveness. You got to look at economy of scale. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. What is the life expectancy? The the whole farm about 40 years or so

that the u that's when the racking will need to be replaced. The inverters will be replaced about every 15 years. So they'll be replaced a couple times in that 40 years. Typically you enter into a 25 year power purchase agreement. And that's more because who knows what the e economics are going to be beyond 25 years and that's the life of the project. Other questions? Thank you sir. Appreciate your time.

Any other discussion up here? Since we're not in a public hearing, I have one other question. This obviously is not in the city limits, but is it in our two mile radius? Is it? It is actually in the city limits. Oh, it is. Okay. Okay. Oh, okay. I think I've always envisioned this land becoming housing, but you know, that's sat for a long time, but next to the fish. Yeah. And that's Yeah. And so it's kind of filling in more in dust rail, right? I mean, everything west or east is east is. Yeah.

Yeah. You've got the satellite dishes right on the corner. Kind of a little satellite compound. BPD. You got all the stuff out at industrial road. I mean, that whole strip along that road could become right. So fits right in. Yeah. That's what I more than residential neighborhood there. The one house. The one house. Yeah. got developed before. I think there were wasn't there like a property that a bunch of like electrical was that's so yeah it it that was there was going to be a residential subdivision and they cut the lots too small and then it got non-cost effective for the developer. Okay. Then it went bad.

Yeah. So yeah, you hear it and it's just sat there ever since. Mhm. and the infrastructure kind of that they did get in prevented it from being really anything else because it wasn't cost effective to go in and remove all the infrastructure to make it feasible for a subdivision that would work because the plan wasn't good going in. And now even if you wanted to make it housing, I think you'd have to go back in and redo a bunch of that's it. It's not cost effective because you're going to have to redo everything that's underground. Yes. I mean just basically does it meet these five things?

Yeah. So it's really our task is to decide whether or not this group thinks it meets those five conditions and if there's anything else you'd like to see. Um I think that the commission has a fairly broad authority to recommend additional conditions on this.

Yeah, I would agree. Um, I I see everybody's role tonight as looking at this, seeing if if you feel like it fits within just the overall uh development plan of the city within this area. Um, whether as part of that development, are there additional conditions that would make sense to place on any type of solar farm development like this? Um, you know, keeping in mind the certain things that are generally included, um, you know, like, uh, I was just looking through some of this and one of the things that stood out to me is that they have to meet,

um, all the elements of the application. They have to comply with all the elements of the application. So, you know, you're kind of looking at their application and seeing, are we okay with the um, I think to Lee's point, it's it calls for 8 foot fencing. So, are you okay? those types of things or you know do you want to throw it some some special condition in on top of that our regulations do require a decommissioning plan which they have attached here. So that's another thing that you can look at. Are you okay with what they presented as a decommissioning plan? Exhibit seven.

I mean I don't know how much it cost to decommission something like this. So, I'm assuming um that's adequate, but I I mean it's it's hard to know if that's adequate and it would be hard to know based on inflationary. Um yeah. Right. So, we're kind of relying on the applicant to tell us what that's going to be. Um, do we have any, you know, experience from other communities what they've required for the decommissioning plan other than the fact that they just have to have one?

Um, most of the regulations that we've seen, and that's why we um constructed ours couple of years ago to include a decommissioning plan. They're all over the place. Some of them give a set dollar amount. Some of them give a set dollar amount plus an inflationary percentage on there. Okay. Um, some of them say it's got to be the decommissioning plan has to be reviewed by an engineer and the engineer tells you what that dollar amount is. So ours is I mean it says it requires a decommissioning plan basically. So what that is I don't know

which it it does it does include it. It doesn't specify exactly what the terms of the decommissioning plan have to be. So, you know, I think if you um have additional questions, I

I I can't find and I'm sorry, I I thought I reviewed this all, but um where is the insurance requirements as well? Is that in here? We don't, our specific regulations don't say you have to have insurance, but I would assume whoever was going to own it would have it. But we don't we don't have in our regulations that says you have to have insurance. Ultimately, the insurance would be the responsibility. Whoever's going to own the thing in the end. Yeah. But we could still make it as a because I don't see it in here. Yeah. I think we'd want to take that. I mean, it's kind of, you know, it's like any business. We don't play with other people's insurance. Yeah, I would.

You could tell them they had to have proof of insurance, but what that is, I don't know. As long as there's a decommissioning process, it really doesn't matter. It gets wasted. They're going to have to decommission it. That's true. In the decommissioning plan, is there a provision for a bond, a requirement that uh that they so there's money to do it at the end? In the one that they proposed to us, yes, they have they have two. Yeah. Two kind of proposals, either a bond or what amounts to an account that will be held for the benefit of decommissioning like an escrow or something. Yeah, like an escro.

Good. That's all to fit into whether this qualifies under our under our purview. I just want to make sure it's a good deal. I make sure that you know that at least that's brought up and it was and so it's handled. the decision on bond or escrow or not is for the council.

I had kind of a 60,000 foot question. Um, and Judy or Gary or somebody's here may be able to answer it, but I mean we obviously have significant amount of activity going on at the industrial park and then you've got you've got the free laying that's just a little bit west of there. I mean, do we do we see this area filling in long term with commercial industrial right up to this point? I would say based on the nature and I mean, you can have Gary chime in too, but based on the way that the land use is going in that area, I really don't see it much different than commercial industrial type.

And with access to the interstate, it's the perfect location. and you've got access to 83. You've got access to Newberry, which gives you access to um you know, it seems like it that's a logical way that the community would grow would make that entire area pretty much commercial industrial type uses. I mean, you could throw some multifamily residential in there, but I just don't see that as being potential being the highest and best use of that area. Not the way that it's going now. What's already there? Yeah. and with what's being developed in other places with right the multifamily and residential

Gary yesterday I mean do you have a difference of opinion come on come on

u it is a very logical area for traditional industrial and commercial and we've had preliminary discussions with land owners out there so um and this is on the far end of that and I there's been a number of people looked at that for housing development just shook their head and you know with most of this other area industrial commercial commercial it just makes sense it's industrial commercial and certainly this type of thing fits better there than it would in other areas of the community. So, and we've dealt with a number of industries the past five years who have had green energy requirement. Um, so they're a little on the large side. So, there's more of a power capacity issue uh and serving those kind of companies than there is, you know, other things. But, uh, it's it's some some companies are always going to have that in their portfolio as a requirement or a need. Gary, are you starting to run into I I heard at a commercial real estate conference in Omaha back in August that we're starting to run into some a bottleneck issue on development in some areas of the state because we're we have a lack of new power generation products. Is that a thing? I mean, were you running into that some?

100% correct. And yes, we have. Yeah, it's it's become a real issue uh with the um um the emergence of data centers, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence are huge huge power energy users. So, it's not just a local uh isolated problem. It's not a Nebraska problem. It's a nationwide problem. And so there's all kinds of efforts nationwide going on trying to increase energy production. MPPPD is definitely looking at we've dealt with a lot of private companies looking at our area, our region uh for potential generation of additional power. We're unique at Nebraska public power. So you have that component that has to be worked in there too. But yeah, it's a it's more a power capacity issue than anything right now. So

I just wondered if you run into that here every day. I heard it every day. So this is a like this helps

any any kind of energy uh production is helpful. All comes back to a cost of uh efficiency. So you know uh requirement. So you know that's that's individual decisions cities, municipalities, counties have to make you know what what's compatible, what isn't. But just addressing it from an overall capacity issue, it's a definite problem. And and um do are there companies that have green energy requirements? There are. So thank you, Gary. Any other discussion? I appreciate everybody giving this studying this and giving it some thought. This is the first time we've seen something like this and and um um maybe not the last time, but um certainly wanted to give it plenty of time to consider and uh work your due diligence on it. So

I move that we find the request for conditional use permit to allow commercial solar farm located at the intersection of Victoria Lane and East State Farm Road meets the minimum standard stated in Northpl code of ordinances section 156.322 and approve and grant the conditional use permit requested with the condition that all ML elements of the application are complied with based on the following factual findings. You shall conform to all applicable ordinances, laws, and regulations of any governmental jurisdiction. You shall have adequate water, sewer, and drainage facilities. Ingress and egress shall be so designated as to minimize traffic congestion in public streets. You shall in all other respects conform to the applicable regulations of the district in which it is located. The use shall be in harmony with the character of the area and the most appropriate use of the land.

Second. Motion by Bane, seconded by Davies to recommend approval of the conditional use permit to the city council. Any more discussion? One question. Yes. So, does the um and grant the conditional use permit requested with the condition that all elements of the application are met? it it does then put into place they have to meet what they've indicated on. Okay. Thank you. Just want to be clear.

Any other discussion, questions on the motion? Not and the motion passes 8 to one. This will go to council December 2nd 5:30. Look old business. I've got nothing.

Um probably the probably the followup I've got from our last meeting is the on the annexations. I think the city's kind of move forward with those. Um, council voted, I think, twice to approve all of those individually. And so, I know those aren't very much fun when they check all the boxes, though, it's it's I think we put council in a little bit of a tough situation on that one. Um, so I think it's important when there's people that testify against those things that there's 24 other,000 people that live here that didn't come to testify that may be in favor of them. So, just keep that in mind. I know those are difficult, especially when you've got people here.

Um, but probably not going to be the end of the annexation talk because I think we're probably I think it cools for a bit because you can't annex during an election cycle. Yep. So, we'll have 26 off, but I suspect we'll see more of this sort of stuff 27. Might see friendlies in 26. Yeah. Is that why you were picking up and trying to do around this the the parks and everything along the river?

Well, the reason the reason for the annexation is like this the city city land. This is just me personally. I think if the city owned land owns land that abuts the city limits, why is it not in city limits? Um but around the parks, um if you see where the actual city limit line goes, it goes essentially right through Centennial Park. That's kind of silly. I mean, why why is not that not in? And then the center of the river um is more of a policing effort because right now it's outside city limits. So if the police get called because you've got um some people homeless living in that area and they have a fight or something, they have to call the sheriff's department because it's actually,

you know, which doesn't make any sense because it's in there. The biggest issue and concern there is just that there's not a lot of clarity. And so by bringing it in, annexing it, it just clarifies it so that there aren't any jurisdictional questions as to who should be called out there. Um, you know, honestly, even on East Sixth Street, we've seen that a little bit. So, yeah,

it doesn't hurt to add a few acres to the city's territory so that you can tip more. Well, I mean that's always an option, but we are we are technically only at 23% the way it is without adding anything. So, we are a far cry from being in a position where we need to add. But yes, people people say that, but um we are a long ways away from the need to add anything to get to that point. Okay, that was all I had to say on that. Any new business? I got nothing. If not, enjoy your turkey and your families. Have a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. yard invite us all the You did it.