Jefferson County begins holding public working meetings to reshape proposed comprehensive plan, solar regulations

A public hearing provided a Southeast Nebraska county board with enough pause to prevent them from approving a proposed comprehensive plan, plus some solar regulations that have sparked debate. Now, over the next few weeks, they’re hosting working meetings where they will publicly present any changes they’re considering. 

The Jefferson County planning and zoning commission presented their revised county comprehensive plan plus proposed solar guidelines to the county board at the end of January. That was the culmination of a two-year-long review process to redevelop a plan designed to be implemented for the next 20 years.  

“This is not us telling you what to do, this is what we’ve heard from people in the county, telling you what to do,” said John Shepard, senior community planner with Marvin Planning Consultants, who worked with the commission to construct the comprehensive plan. “This is a playbook. You hire a coach, you hire John here [county planning and zoning administrator John McKee] to work with the planning commission. And we’ve got a whole bunch of goals and action items in this project, now it’s up to you as the board to set the agenda, and set the budget, to see those things come through.” 

But after a public hearing last month, it was clear more work would be needed. Nearly a dozen Jefferson County citizens offered their input on the proposed plan: some advised the commissioners to prioritize elements that would most benefit ag producers, while others cautioned that some solar regulations go too far and infringe upon personal property rights.  

“If I want to expand beyond 300 cows, and I currently have 200, if I wanted to start a feedlot, I cannot – your zoning regulations and setbacks prevent me from that. You’re preventing hardworking citizens in Jefferson County from growing their business,” said Brandon Pohlmann, a Plymouth farmer and onetime member of the county’s board of zoning adjustment. “If you look at all these regulations, I see zero things that protect the rights of farmers. It all protects the acreage person. You’ve got to make it so the farmers that are here can make a living. Make it worth it for their kids to come back, their grandkids coming back. And renewable energy is [the way to do] that. Livestock is the way to do that, livestock’s the equalizer.” 

"These regulations would basically stop the opportunity for any solar development in Jefferson County," said Gale Pohlmann, the former Jefferson County commissioner, in his testimony. "This added source of income for a farmer could potentially provide the opportunity to bring a son or a daughter back into the farming operation. We all know - we need young farmers to return to the farm. Our wind farm regulations have eliminated the wind industry here, and let’s not do the same with the solar regulations.” 

“Zoning regulations are inherently a restriction on private property rights, and private property rights matter, especially in Red America. We believe in those,” said Hannes Zetzsche, an attorney for Omaha-based Baird Holm, representing NextEra. “And so the task, really, by state law, has to be you maximize private property rights, and you restrict them only as is minimally necessary for the public health, safety and welfare. And I submit to you that the setbacks and buffer requirements that you have here do more than that, they’re excessive – they are more than necessary for the public health, safety and welfare.” 

The commissioners felt it was clear that the regulations couldn’t be approved as they were initially proposed. So over the next few weeks, they’ll be hosting a series of working meetings, where they’ll publicly discuss any of the changes they’re considering. 

The first of those meetings came last Tuesday, where many of the same faces from last month’s public hearing reappeared to see what changes the commissioners are considering. Any and all of those changes will be publicly tracked. 

Board chairman Michael Dux said most of the feedback the board received so far concerned the proposed solar regulation setbacks, and the preservation of the county’s prime farmland. The rest, he said, “is pretty much where we want it.” 

“There are probably four people in the room that were here when [a comprehensive plan] was first presented, and this was presented as being protective and not restrictive, and to me, this is restrictive,” Dux said. “Our setbacks are way too high here. We need some revenue in the county, and I don’t know if we’re ever going to get any solar energy, but nobody has ever come up with any other ideas to get revenue in the county.” 

Shepard stated clearly that the terms of engagement for a comprehensive plan are that if something is not expressly permitted, that means it’s prohibited – with hardly any exceptions. He said the planning commission worked to “harmonize” proposed solar regulations with the established wind regulations, which he said are more restrictive than those in surrounding areas. 

“It always has to be based in the comprehensive plan,” Shepard told the board. “You look at the survey results, the town hall results, we went out and talked to people, and there are people who want to be more restrictive [with the regulations], and then there are people who want to be more...laissez-faire. There’s a broad public here, and we had rounds and rounds of public input on this. When it gets to this point, the planning commission made their recommendations, and you can either accept those recommendations, adopt with changes, or say no and send it back.” 

The board plans to host more of these working meetings over the next few weeks before they formally reconsider accepting the comprehensive plan on March 24; the next of those working meetings is this Tuesday.