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Neighbor repeats concerns at hearing; plan advances
McCOOK, Neb. -- Despite a neighbors claim of threats and drainage issues the McCook City Council unanimously voted to clear the way for a housing development to proceed recently.
The man, Craig Christner of McCook, owns vacant property in the North Pointe Properties development and lives in a home bordering the development to the north. During last week's meeting, Christner said he wasn't notified about the replat and the Quillan Courts housing development would cause more erosion. He claimed housing developers for the adjacent North Pointe Properties project made threats against him and he attempted to raise concerns related to evictions which occurred on the Quillan Courts property, but was cut short by a city official who said public hearings wouldn't allow them to be raised.
North Pointe developers deny threatening Christner and said Thursday they thought their dispute had been resolved when they conceded property to him following claims of adverse possession.
Prior to Christner's comments City Manager Nate Schneider opened the hearing with a summary of the replat, known as Clary Village Replat No. 3.
"What we basically are looking at is a additional replat. We've already done one and two as part of projects out there at that location. We've got the North Pointe project already going on the north side of R Street. We have the Clary Subdivision or the Clary Village on the south side of R Street. Now we're just extending this out west of West 8 1/2 Street," said Schneider.
Replat No. 3 focuses on the Quillan Courts development district which will be located on two city blocks to the west of West 8 1/2 Street. The blocks are bordered to the north by West R Street and to the south by Q Street, with West 9th Street dividing them.
The development district is planned as a mix of 16 duplexes and single family units, according to Schneider.
The project includes city lots that are narrower than is generally allowed by city building code, which Schneider said was necessary so the duplexes could be treated like townhouses when they become available for purchase. The properties will have a purchase option available at year 15 and again at year 45.
Schneider recapped several other details of the project, including the construction of two detention ponds and sidewalk and crosswalk specifications.
The only member of the public to speak, Christner said he owned property in the division and adjacent to it and had not been contacted in any way with plans or information pertaining to the project.
Schneider replied that he believed there was a 300 foot distance requirement for notification which was probably why Christner didn't receive notification. Christner's home at 808 Spruce Road is 297 yards north of the Quillan Courts development, according to Google Earth.
Christner said he wanted to address concerns related to drainage as well as to report threats made against him from developers of the project.
"One of my major concerns is that the drainage for these 22 acres runs through my residential lot and, already, a great deal of damage has been done," he said. "But before I make any comments or anything that would hinder this, I need to report that threats have been made against me and my family, um, directly. By Bill Davis in particular, also Terry McCorkle. I was told that tragic things will happen to our family, to our property if we..." Schneider interrupted and said the individuals referenced were not part of the Quillan Courts project and topics unrelated to the project were not allowed during the public hearing.
North Pointe Properties LLC is made up of four members, Bill and Paula Davis and Terry and Jill McCorkle, according to the certificate of organization.
"The individuals you are referring to, they aren't part of the Quillan Court project. This is the Quillan Courts project, nothing but the Quillan Courts project. So you can't talk about anything besides the Quillan Courts project. That's what we're here to talk about tonight. So if you have other concerns there are other avenues that you might want to take to go ahead and address those concerns," said Schneider.
Christner said he did have concerns related to Quillan Courts but wanted to get on public record the threats made. Schneider interrupted again.
"You can't put that on the public record because that's not part of the agenda. You're limited to what the agenda says tonight," said Schneider.
Today, Bill Davis said Christner attempted to claim adverse possession on a portion of the North Pointe Properties development and developers eventually agreed to concede ownership of a triangular section on the northwest corner, as a middle ground to resolve the dispute. Christner claimed he had been maintaining the property for years and had a verbal agreement to purchase it with the previous owner, according to Davis.
Davis said he hadn't spoken with Christner since ownership was transferred and believed the issue was resolved.
"We didn't make any threats against his family," said a seemingly surprised Davis, adding they did inform Christner they would proceed with the development.
During last week's meeting, Christner also attempted to discuss evictions which took place on the Quillan Courts property prior to the McCook Economic Development Corp. purchasing the land from North Pointe Properties. He referenced eviction notices served on residents of Q Street Village in May of 2013 by North Pointe Properties LLC. North Pointe acquired the property earlier that month from S W Nebraska Properties LLC for $225,000.
The McCook Economic Development Corp. subsequently purchased the vacant property from North Pointe in March of 2015 for a price of $1, according to deed information available through the Red Willow County property search website.
"You can't discuss that because that's not on the agenda for tonight. If you have a concern you can discuss with us that or if you want to actually address it at some point in time you can ask to have it put on a later, future agenda. But were limited to what we can talk about, that's by law," interrupted Schneider, adding the rules applied to city staff as well.
Christner again referenced the evictions prompting City Attorney Nate Mustion to comment.
"Specific things about the project is what we're talking about tonight. And those are listed on our notice to the public on what we are going to be discussing at the meeting tonight. So we do need to keep it specifically to those items about the Quillan project," said Mustion.
Christner then raised concerns related to drainage runoff from the Quillan Courts development. Schneider said a drainage study had been done and the project would not increase runoff but was not planning to resolve existing issues, either.
"The drainage study basically said that, what we're trying to do is not increase the drainage more than what we're already at. It won't increase the drainage," said Schneider, reiterating it would not resolve existing issues and city staff realized more would need to be done if the North Pointe development continued to expand to the north.
City Council members offered no comment during the public hearing.
Just before approving a resolution authorizing the creation of the Clary Subdivision Replat No. 3, Councilman Bruce McDowell asked when detention ponds for storm water runoff be constructed. MEDC Director Rex Nelson said they would be built simultaneously with the rest of the project.
The ponds will be on the eastern block of the Quillan Courts development, Schneider said, and are intended to slow runoff so the gully to the west is not made worse.
Christner responded that the gully is 18 feet deep and 30 feet wide, through his property, "making my property virtually useless. And it didn't exist when we moved there," he said.
No response was offered to Christner's claim and City Council unanimously approved the resolution without further comment. The final subdivision agreement for the Clary Subdivision Replat No. 3 was approved immediately afterward without comment.
Chief of Police Isaac Brown said he spoke with Christner following the meeting and learned he had previously reported his claim of threats to the Red Willow County Sheriff's Office. Christner also claimed to have proof he had not provided to the Sheriff's Department.
Earlier this week, Schneider said the city couldn't allow discussion to stray beyond what is slated for the respective meetings.
"That's not to say we can't discuss these items if people want to come in and talk about them. We can even schedule these items to be addressed, if it is appropriate to schedule the item for a later meeting. But for a city to allow a topic to be hashed out without proper notice and thought is tantamount to violating municipal best practices," Schneider said.
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