Previous Month's Minutes

VILLAGE OF CLATONIA

CLATONIA, NE 68328

 

The Village of Clatonia held a town meeting on May 30th, 2024. Chairperson Sheri Holsing called the meeting to order at 7:34pm. Those in attendance were Sheri Holsing, John Schuerman, Shelby Hajek, and Mike Waltke. Brody Fuller was absent. Others present were Tom Uhlman, Scott Shepler, Noah Chesnut, Steve Parr, Lisa Weigand, Emily Haxby, and several other Clatonia residents.

 

Scott Shepler from Shepler Construction made an opening statement about the proposed new addition on SW 100th road (parcel 007129000). He stated he is working with Tom and Shannon Uhlman, who currently own parcel 007129000. They are looking to develop the land for family housing. He plans to start with five lots on the North side with the potential for 24-29 houses. They kept the lot size larger and the number of lots smaller so the Village of Clatonia will still be considered a small town. Tom and Shannon and Scott have put a lot of thought and consideration into the development plan. They feel it will bring more opportunity for home ownership in Clatonia, will do nothing but benefit the residents and the residents of the rural area and will help support the town. Available housing in the Wilber-Clatonia school district is a great opportunity for alumni to move back into the area. Families with ties in the area will have opportunities to move back home and raise their children in the school district they grew up in. In addition, retired farm families will also have opportunities to stay close to the family farms. While planning this development, Shepler Construction studied the current infrastructure in place. It contains an 8 inch sewer line running from the black top all the way to Jay Street. It was put in to replace the lift station on the west side of the blacktop. There is also a 6 inch water main located in the North alley between the development and the existing housing. Preliminary evaluations indicate both water and sewer should be sufficient to support this new development. All the new infrastructure will be paid for by the developer. All zoning requirements will meet the requirements of Gage County Zoning and will then be annexed into the Village of Clatonia which will allow the Village to collect revenue from the water, sewer, and electricity. The Village will see no cost for any construction or development of this property but will collect revenue once it is finished. These plans are in a preliminary stage.

 

Noah Chesnut with REGA Engineering added that there were some concerns for the neighbors on the north side of the alley. With what is being proposed, there would be no direct access to the alley from the rear of the development. They will also be looking into a landscape buffer to try to delineate between the actual subdivision and the old town. He added he thinks it will be positive for Clatonia and beneficial for everybody.

 

Steve Parr from JEO Consulting Group introduced himself. He explained if the project moved forward, their job would be to review what is being proposed and looking out for the interest of the Village and making sure what is being designed is being done properly. If it would go through, the paving, water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer would be the responsibility of the Village. Which he added wouldn’t be a bad thing. One of the things that Scott mentioned that will need to be looked into is the waste water treatment facility and the lift station just to make sure with this potential development the existing lagoons and equipment can handle the additional flow. That is one thing that will have to be looked into. He did note that there will be a process to go through when property is developed. There is a preliminary plat that will go through the Gage County planning commission (because Clatonia does not have a planning commission) and then it would come to the Village board for approval or denial. Once that happens, there will be a final plat that will once again go to the Gage County planning commission and then the Village board for approval or denial. Each time there is a plat there is a public hearing.

 

Sheri Holsing then opened the floor for questions.

 

“Are all houses going to be on spec?”  

Scott - No they will be total custom houses. No cookie cutter houses.

 

“All the additional engineering costs, like the consulting firm, is that something the Village will pay for?”

Steve- That is yet to be determined. That is to be a conversation with JEO and the Village board as to how they want to handle that. Anything JEO will do with the Village will be under contract and the board will have to determine if that’s a cost the board wants to pay for or if that’s a cost the developer will have to pay for.

 

“Is this Zone Ag now? What zoning does it fall under?”

Lisa - It currently falls under A4 which is Urban Reserve, and that goes clear down to Birch. A4 was designed around there, so this is allowable, but as Steve stated there is a process that is goes through, but it would be zoned correct to do so. It still falls under Gage County zoning regulations.

 

“When you say subdivision are those covenants different from Ag? Would this be set back?”

Lisa - There is a complete separate set of regulations that are the Gage County Subdivision Regulations. As far as street requirements, gutter requirements, fire hydrants, things of that nature, part of the infrastructure that’s written into the regulations.

 

“What will this do to my property taxes? Will they raise? Stay the same?”

Emily - Your property evaluations are based on like structure sales over the last 3 years. So your residence will probably not be equal to or like structure to the new ones so it wouldn’t affect your valuation. And the taxes are based on the levy placed on that. And that will be based on your school board or county board on their levies.”

 

“How much will lots cost?”

Scott - We haven’t gotten that far yet.

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“What is your minimum price on housing?”

Scott - We don’t have a minimum. They are all custom built so it will all depend on what you want.

 

“So you are saying you will be building the houses and local contractors won’t be involved?”

Scott – At the start we are going to keep it just me (Shepler Construction). We will be putting in all the infrastructure. I’m not saying that if we sell them quick and someone comes and asks for a lot and they have someone that wants to build then we won’t sell to them.

 

“Those houses on the North side of the lot, are those town homes or for low income?”

Scott – They could be set as Duplexes, but they don’t have to be. You can either buy one big lot or it can be two. The only reason we have that is maybe for people, farmers who want to move to town and they don’t want to have to take care a big place, have a smaller place.

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“Is this going to be HOA?”

Scott – No

 

“If I buy a lot, do I have to have you build it or can I bring in a double wide?”

Scott – No, we are going to set some regulations. There won’t be any campers, double wide’s, stuff like that.

 

“So why won’t it be HOA?”

Scott – I really can’t answer that. I think you’re just jumping through hoops. I think with the Village ordinances I don’t know what those are exactly, but I wouldn’t think that would be allowed.

Tom – If I recall correctly, there was an individual who came here in the late 90’s and they put a few trailer houses in and your ordinance, you have a city ordinance nixing any trailer houses.

John – Trailer houses are not allowed. Pre-fab modular homes are still allowed, but they have to be, I believe, no older than 5 years of the current year. So somebody couldn’t move in an old modular home that was 6 years old or one that was completely trashed, it had at that time had to be within the 5 years current. Trailer houses are no longer allowed.

 

“The creek bottom to the east of this property, is that going to be disturbed?”

Scott – If it’s not on Tom Uhlman’s, it won’t be disturbed.  

 

“How long will this development take?”

Scott – We don’t really know that. It just depends on how much interest we get. Right now we have people calling, they’re already showing interest. A lot of them are younger people who want to move home and that’s why we are pursuing this.

 

“Why is there interest? There’s nothing here. There’s no convenience store. You either have to go 7 miles west or 9 miles east to get fuel”

Scott- Yeah, but you’re on a blacktop road. Let’s say I’m a farmer and my wife has a job in Lincoln. You’re on a blacktop road, its convenience.

 

“I’m just asking, what’s the interest of building here”

Scott – Hey everybody loves, all these people that are surrounding this town, and obviously all you here care about the Village, were just trying to make it better. Add some new homes and growing. We’re going to add 24 homes. If you put 5 people in each home, that’s less than 100 people. You’re still smaller than DeWitt. And DeWitt is growing, I mean dying.

 

“DeWitt has a place to get fuel, they have a convenience store”

Scott – Well they don’t have a convenience store anymore. But if we put more houses (in Clatonia) the Co-op, I see your shirt, might put some gas pumps in here.

Resident – No they won’t, it costs too much. I already asked.

Noah – I live in Lincoln, I think people are looking to get back to small towns. Small towns have passion. Given the fact you are all here that shows you have the passion that people are looking for. As far as a time limit, we have to get to that point in order for it to happen.

Resident – The reason I ask that question, how long it will take, people on the southwest part of town will have to deal with noise and construction.

Noah – The development time is about 18 months, it just depends on what houses are going to be, what materials are going to cost.

 

“Can you guarantee there will be no road going from the west to the east on Jay Street?”

Noah – No one can guarantee that

Tom – That’s private property

 

“My question is for the Village Board. What is being done for a second well? Because I know we need one.”

Sheri – Yes, we know we need another one too and we are working on it.

Emily – Sheri reached out and asked if there were any grants for wells, or second wells, and we did get 2 applications in for a grant that would be an 80/20 match. Hopefully we will hear in the next month or so if those were successful.

John – I just want to add, we have already been talking about another well before we even knew anything about the proposal. We knew when the first backup well went down, we are only relying on that one well and we have to have a backup. So that well has been looked at, talked to Emily trying to find out funding on that so that has already been looked into prior to even knowing this was even a dream, so we have been looking into that part.

 

“I am wondering about the existing sewer system”

Sheri – We are going to be looking at that as well.

John – We have to do a study on it to see what the capacity is, if it can handle more.

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“Why doesn’t the Village look into the program “One Property at a time” and clean up and restore what we have now instead of adding more?”

Sheri – Thank you, and I am aware of that program in Blue Springs.

Scott – I think its Rex Adams is working with it in Blue Springs, they’re tearing down old houses. The city is buying them, the city is not building new houses. They are giving lots to contractors to build new houses on. A lot of that money, it’s very expensive, I don’t know who owns the lots in town, but in order to eminent domain and take these lots its very expensive. By the time you tear down, you demolish it, lawyer fees. There’s a lot work. If you own that lot and don’t want to sell it, the city thought I outta have it, you will be fighting with lawyers. It’s very expensive.

Resident – But its one property at a time. Not 10 or 20. If we have to subsidize something, let’s do it small scale.

 

“The infrastructure for the new development – all the roads, storm sewer, gutters, curbs - will all that be put in place before the houses are built? And can you elaborate on the infrastructure? Are you doing curb and gutter, concrete streets, all the right way?”

Noah – We are going to clean out what we need to for sanitary and water, that infrastructure will be installed then we’re going to streets, and limited sidewalks.

Resident – Will it all be done before? Will all the streets be concreted, everything’s taken care of?

Noah – Yes. It will all be put in, just because you can’t have a contractor come in and build a house without a way to get here.

 

“The cost of all of that will be to the developer?”

Noah – So the cost will be to the developer itself. The cost now will probably be a lot different than down the road. Cost has doubled in the last 18 months.

 

“Will there be a sidewalk that goes up along 100th road to the park?”

Noah – We can look at that. At the very least sidewalks will be going throughout both sides of the development.

 

“You talked about a setback from the furthest south alley to the existing town. How far is that set back until you get to the actual development?”

Noah – A landscape buffer is usually around 10-15 feet. It’s basically big enough to fill the space.

Resident – 10-15 feet from the center of the alley?

Noah – 10-15 feet from the lot line. I can’t recall if the lot line is on the center of the alley.

Resident – That doesn’t sound like much of a buffer. 10-15 feet.

 

“Who will be in charge of maintaining the buffer?”

Scott – It will be on the developer

Resident – So the developer will maintain the buffer for eternity?

Scott – Initially it will be on the developer until the house is purchased.

 

“Will the extra traffic affect the blacktop?”

Emily – Right now we are looking at an average daily traffic of about 300-500 on that road. We can see up to 700 before it becomes a real issue. That road is 22 years old so we are actually looking at resurfacing it.

 

“What about the bridge?”

Emily – We have 2 grant applications out for that right now. If they are unsuccessful we are going to be replacing it either way as it is at the end of its life. We will be getting into the bridge within the next couple years whether we get a grant or not.

 

“How will this affect the post office? Some houses in town get PO boxes and some have mail boxes. Will these new homes have PO boxes or mail boxes?”

Scott – We will have to look into that

 

“For future maintenance, do you know what the extra cost will be to take care of that area?”

John – Everything is preliminary. New streets have a lifespan where safely 10 years you won’t touch them. So the only associated cost in the near future would be snow removal and the maintenance guy gets paid $18/hour. Probably takes 2 hours to clean it, so you’re looking at $36 expense every snow. Over time streets do wear out and stuff.

Tom – A few years ago, probably 2011, the town did pump the 2 sub lagoons on the east side of the road. They told me that was the first time they had done it and it was built in 1950 something. So they said it was over 50 years they didn’t do anything to. They said in the future they really should be doing that every 20-25 years. And that was talking with the contractor who pumped it. That was their recommendation at the time.

 

Sheri then opened the floor for statements.

 

Resident Paul Zajicek – In my head I’m saying progress is good, change is going to happen whether I’m here or not. Change has happened a lot in my life. They always told me if you’re not willing to change life will pass you by. But my heart is telling me something different. I understand why people want it. But there’s a lot of things here that need to be improved without that.

 

Resident Jesse Hajek – I would like to highlight some reasons why I am opposed to this proposal. To the best of my knowledge, we have currently have 8 abandoned houses and 17 vacant lots. These can all be repurposed for development reasons. Let’s fix the Village we have. What’s wrong with keeping Clatonia, Clatonia? Most people live here because they don’t want to live in Hickman or Lincoln. This is what I’ve heard from almost every resident that I’ve talked to. We like our Village small, our taxes small, our problems small, and a place that’s nice and quiet. It’s already known that are water supply is hanging on by a thread. What will this extra load do to the system? At any moment in time we could lose water. It has happened, several times this past year. How about the sewage system? Forget the fact that these houses will be built directly across from our lagoons. I can’t imagine anyone that would want to live there. Those of us that currently live in the Village, we already experience the horrible smells from the lagoon several months out of the year. Will this additional sewage prolong smell or keep it all year round? If so, who would be liable for our air quality? Next, the proposed new roads do not match the current Village layout. The entire Village is set out as a block by block system for reasons of easy travel, easy maintenance, Village standardization, and most of all fire and rescue response. Cost. What kind of cost will the Village be responsible for if this would pass? We have discussed that, but we all know this will end up costing us. Everyone is sick of paying property taxes and inflation we have at this current time. Will the current tax payers be responsible for any legal fees, engineering fees, permits, infrastructures, consulting that’s already happening now? What is going to happen to our property taxes and housing assessments? In other words will there be any financial impact whatsoever to the current tax payers in Clatonia? Just the overall need for development. I can’t remember in recent past any Villager or significant driver out there asking for additional housing in Clatonia. This is not something part of the people of Clatonia, it only recently came to life. So with that I will close and say I have personally spoken to a large number of Clatonia residents who share these same thoughts. Almost every neighbor that I have. And when I say neighbor that’s most of the town because were pretty small. I would like to thank the board for taking their time to hear what I have to say and kindly ask that you reject this proposal.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 8:24pm

 

The Village board would like to thank those that took the time to come to the meeting. We appreciate all the questions and comments. It was reassuring that most of the questions asked are already being addressed and we are working on a solution for both the Village and the land owners. Growth is good. And we do need to clean up the abandoned homes. Something we are in the process of already. These things take time and help from the Village. Should we get possession of any of the abandoned homes, there will be a cost. We will need to pay someone to tear it down, possibly using donations from the Community. Please reach out if you are willing to volunteer to make Clatonia Beautiful!