VALENTINE, Neb. - Zoning fees could be increasing in Cherry County. On Tuesday, county commissioners discussed increasing the fees, which haven’t been adjusted in years.

Cherry County Zoning Administrator Jane Stolzenburg said most counties have much higher fees, and the current rates don’t cover costs associated with processing the zoning permits.

Stolzenburg said that when properties are assessed, the County has noticed that many people also fail to get a zoning permit for their projects.

During the Tuesday meeting, commissioners looked at making the following adjustments:

  • Zoning permit for a residence increasing from $0 to $50.
  • Application for conditional use permit increasing from $50 to $150. Stolzenburg said that a lot of other counties charge around $200.
    “There’s more time involved in those because you have to send notifications to neighbors and city clerks if it’s near a town,” said Stolzenburg.
  • Conditional use permits for cell phone towers generally range from $250 to $500. Commissioners discussed increasing that fee to $250, along with adding a $75 fee for upgrading equipment on cell towers.
  • Application for conditional use permit for a non-commercial wind energy conversion system to $150. However, if the project is not more than 100 kilowatt, a resident doesn’t need to apply for a permit.

County commissioners decided to wait on talking about commercial wind energy permits because of the vast difference in fees from other counties, with some counties charging $50 and others charging $15,000 per tower per year, plus an additional initial permit fee of $15,000.

Commissioners also decided to wait on deciding solar project permit fees because the county currently doesn’t have any zoning regulations for solar projects.

They also discussed increasing the filing of appeal to a decision of the zoning administrator from $50 to $100.

If someone fails to get a permit, commissioners also discussed charging a fee of three times the original fee of the permit.

Commissioners didn’t make any decisions about the proposed zoning fee increases and plan to discuss the issue further at their next meeting.

You can take a look at the zoning fees in Antelope County here and in Jefferson County here.