Comprehensive plan discussed at open house

More than two dozen attended an open house/community listening session, including residents, city officials, personnel and council members on Monday at the Kimball Event Center.

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz opened the meeting by explaining that the comprehensive plan is the city's development guide for up to the next decade.

"A lot of people don't understand what the comprehensive plan is and really how it affects our community as we move forward and as we grow," Ortiz said. "To sum it up a comprehensive plan is our guide that lays out what our future land use will be for the next five or ten years."

Ortiz said every community has a similar plan, though they may be called by other names. The plan is a guide for how land is used, how land is zoned and how the city council makes decisions regarding use of land.

"We've had a couple of zoning issues that have arisen in the past year," Ortiz continued. "It is kind of emblematic of how old and antiquated our comprehensive plan was."

The current comprehensive plan was implemented in 2001 or 2002, Ortiz said. Uses for land have changed and the city has received requests to modify uses in certain areas throughout the community.

"Anything within one mile of our corporate limits is guided by this comprehensive plan. So it is important that as we lay this out for the next ten years that we have public input and really look towards the future and think long and hard as to what we want our community to be," Ortiz said.

To that end, Ortiz introduced Lonnie Dickson of Hanna: Keelan Associates, a community planning and research firm from Lincoln.

Dickson said his firm has been hired to update the city's planning documents and conduct a housing market study.

Additionally, Dickson tabulated and presented the totals from the citizen survey distributed by the City of Kimball, of which 184 surveys were received back.

One of the most prevalent needs in Kimball is for low to moderate income housing, as assessed by the citizen survey. Upper-income housing was not an area of concern according to the survey.

Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA) funds first time home buyer programs, rent-to-own housing and other housing programs, Dickson said.

"One of their (NIFA's) most recent efforts is to assist communities across the state in terms of providing housing for the workforce," Dickson said.

As communities grow, particularly those along Interstate 80, housing has become a increasing need.

"The I-80 corridor is the lifeline for economic development, community development, growth and industry if you will," Dickson said. "That has served communities well in terms of putting them in the position where they are in dire need of housing to support that workforce."

For those citizens that indicated dissatisfaction with their own housing situation, many indicated that utilities are too high, a sentiment again indicated by those who wish to see more utility options to compete with the local providers.

Dickson evaluated 1,025 houses in the city of Kimball, and based the condition on visible states of decline. The information garnered from his findings can be found in the table above.

Discussion regarding the potential solutions to the housing concerns included what is necessary to force demolition of unsafe structures, funding available to repair and renovate outdated homes and the addition of upscale homes surrounding the golf course.

Although upper-income housing was not identified as a concern for most residents of Kimball, council members have alluded to the eventual construction of such homes.

Other areas of concern garnered from the survey include the lack of local restaurants, employment opportunities and entertainment.

Off-setting those needs are the high quality of the fitness center, churches, fire protection, pharmacy and banks, in that order, according to the survey.

Returned surveys point to agriculture as the most important industry in Kimball followed by manufacturing and medical/emergency.

Entertainment again made the list as one of the least important – regardless of the high rate of concern for the lack of entertainment.