Opinion ID: 4534560
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: Parties and Proceedings Frank Hochstein and Bow Creek Valley, LLC (collectively Hochstein), operated a 4,500 animal unit feedlot within the “‘A-1’ Agricultural - Intensive District” (A-1 District) of Cedar County, Nebraska. Under the Cedar County zoning regulations, Hochstein’s cattle feedlot fell within the definition of a livestock feeding operation (LFO). For an LFO the size of Hochstein’s, the regulations specify a setback distance of 1 mile for a residence. Mark and Carla Goeden are neighboring landowners of Hochstein. They are involved in an agricultural operation in Cedar County consisting of the ownership and use of approximately 900 acres of farmland. Of the 900 acres, 240 acres are located in one platted section, including both a quarter section of 160 acres at the north end and an adjoining 80-acre tract on the south end. The Goedens submitted an application for a zoning permit, seeking a permit to construct a new house on the 80-acre tract at the south end of their 240-acre farm. The Cedar County zoning administrator approved the permit. Two days later, Hochstein filed a notice of appeal of the zoning administrator’s decision with the Cedar County Board of Adjustment (the board). Hochstein alleged that the Goedens’ zoning permit was for a “non-farm residence” and that the zoning regulations provided that “[n]ew non-Farm residences” shall not be located “closer to existing LFO’s than the setback distances for LFO’s from existing residences on the matrix set out above.” Hochstein asserted that the Goedens’ proposed residence was located 3,300 feet from Hochstein’s LFO, but that the required setback was 1 mile, or 5,280 feet. By a 4-to-1 vote, the board affirmed the zoning administrator’s decision. - 324 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports HOCHSTEIN v. CEDAR CTY. BD. OF ADJUSTMENT Cite as 305 Neb. 321 Ten days later, Hochstein filed a complaint in district court. Hochstein alleged that the board’s decision was illegal and not supported by the evidence and therefore was arbitrary, unreasonable, or clearly wrong. The district court held a hearing and received the verbatim transcript of the board hearing, exhibits offered to the board, and the board’s written resolution. One of the exhibits was the Cedar County zoning regulations. Zoning Regulations The structure of the zoning regulations impedes a clear recitation. The regulations are divided into topics, each identified by a topic phrase. Within a topic, sections are numbered. But the same section numbers are used under other topics within the regulations. We organize this summary to omit confusing references. We will first recall the regulations’ definitions, identifying undefined terms and quoting definitions of other terms. Then we will quote regulations governing an A-1 District. These will include sections covering intent and purpose, principal permitted uses, conditional uses, and setback requirements. Finally, we will quote the regulation for an A-1 District imposing a setback requirement for “[n]ew non-Farm residences”—the regulation at the heart of the dispute. As we begin with definitions, we first note key terms which are not defined. The zoning regulations provide no definitions of “non-farm residence,” “farm residence,” and “residence.” With respect to such undefined terms, the regulations dictate that “[w]ords or terms not herein defined shall have their ordinary meaning in relation to the context.” Turning now to defined terms, we progress from general to specific. First, “agriculture” is defined as the use of a tract of land for the growing of crops, pasturage, nursery, or the raising of poultry, including the structures necessary for carrying out farming operations, the residence or residences of those owning or operating - 325 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports HOCHSTEIN v. CEDAR CTY. BD. OF ADJUSTMENT Cite as 305 Neb. 321 the premises, a member of the family thereof, or persons employed thereon, and the family thereof, but such use shall not include feedlots. Second, a “farm” means an are[a] containing at least forty (40) acres or more which is used for growing of the usual farm products such as vegetables, fruit, and grain, and storage on the area, as well as for the raising thereon of the usual farm poultry and farm animals up to 300 animal units as defined in these regulations[.] Third, “agricultural operations” are defined as “[f]armsteads of forty acres or more that produce one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) or more of farm products each year.” Finally, “agricultural and farm buildings and structures” are defined to mean any building or structure that is necessary or incidental to the normal conduct o[f] a farm including but not limited to residence of the operator, residence of hired men, barns, buildings and sheds for housing livestock, poultry and farm machinery, buildings for the storage or shelter of grain, hay and other crops, silos, windmills and water storage tanks. (Emphasis supplied.) Turning to zoning regulations addressing an A-1 District, we first quote the language explaining its intent and purpose: The [A-1 District] regulations are intended to provide for the use and conservation of agricultural land, to protect the value of such land, and to protect it from indiscriminate residential and urban development and other incompatible and conflicting land uses: to conserve and protect the value of open space, wooded areas, streams, mineral deposits and other natural resources and to protect them from incompatible land uses and to provide for their timely utilization; to provide for the location and govern the establishment and operation of land uses which are compatible with agriculture and are of such nature - 326 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports HOCHSTEIN v. CEDAR CTY. BD. OF ADJUSTMENT Cite as 305 Neb. 321 that their location away from residential, commercial and industrial areas is most desirable; to provide for the location and govern the establishment of residential uses which are accessory to and necessary for the conduct of agriculture and to provide for the location and govern the establishment and use of limited non-agricultural residential uses. Such non-agricultural residential uses shall not be so located as to be detrimental to our [sic] conflict with other uses which are named as permitted or conditional uses in this district and are appropriate to other property in the area. The nature of the A-1 District and the uses allowed out right [sic] or by conditional use precludes the provision of services, amenities and protection from other land uses which are afforded to residential uses by the regulations of other districts, and it is not intended that the A-1 District regulations afford such serv­ices, amenities and protection to residential; [sic] uses located therein. (Emphasis supplied.) The regulations for an A-1 District list “permitted principal uses.” One such use is “[a]gricultural operations, and the usual agricultural and farm buildings and structures, including the residence of the owners and their families and any tenants and employees who are engaged in agricultural operations on the premises.” Another is “[n]ew single family dwellings on lots of eighty (80) acres or more.” The A-1 District regulations also itemize conditional uses. Conditional uses are those which the governing body “may, by conditional use permit, authorize . . . subject to such conditions as the [g]overning [b]ody deems necessary.” One such conditional use is “[n]ew single-family dwellings on lots no less than forty (40) acres, provided the Intensity of Use and all other requirements of this district are met.” The regulations contain a matrix with setback distances from existing residences and LFOs. Following the matrix, a regulation states in part, “The distance requirements may be - 327 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports HOCHSTEIN v. CEDAR CTY. BD. OF ADJUSTMENT Cite as 305 Neb. 321 decreased or waived by a waiver signed by all of the property owners of non-farm residence or other residence not on the owner’s property or LFOs within the distances specified.” The last regulation contained in the A-1 District section is a focal point of these proceedings. It states: “New non-Farm residences, as defined in these Regulations, shall be located no closer to existing LFO’s than the setback distances for LFO’s from existing residences on the matrix set out above.” But, as noted above, “non-Farm residences” is not defined in the regulations. District Court’s Decision The district court affirmed the board’s decision. The court recognized that permitted uses in an A-1 District included “‘farm buildings and structures, including the residence of the owners’” and “‘new single family dwellings on lots of eighty (80) acres or more.’” It noted that the Goedens were the owners of farmland, including a 240-acre tract, and that their land qualified as an “Agricultural Operation” under the zoning regulations. The court reasoned that “using the plain meaning of the terms, a ‘non-Farm’ residence would be a residence which was not located on a farm.” But, the court observed, the proposed residence would be constructed on a farm. The court emphasized that the zoning regulations specifically permitted as principal uses the residence of the owners and new single family dwellings on lots of 80 acres or more. It reasoned that “the only new residences subject to the setback requirements are non-Farm residences.” The court concluded: The Goeden building permit is consistent with the overall manifest intention of the Cedar County Supervisors to protect agriculture. The residences of farmers, operators or mere landlords, are permitted principal uses in the district while the interests of a conditional use LFO are subordinated to farmer residences but protected to some degree by non-farm residences. - 328 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 305 Nebraska Reports HOCHSTEIN v. CEDAR CTY. BD. OF ADJUSTMENT Cite as 305 Neb. 321 Hochstein filed a timely appeal, which we moved to our docket. 1 ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR Hochstein alleges that the court erred in (1) interpreting the zoning regulations in determining whether the proposed residence qualified as a “non-farm residence,” (2) finding the proposed residence was consistent with the intent of the zoning regulations, (3) affirming the decision of the board, and (4) finding the decision of the board was not arbitrary, unreasonable, or clearly wrong.