• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Grant county over worried or missing an opportunity?

CattleArmy

Well-known member
Scenic highway bid gains foes
By PAUL HAMMEL , World-Herald Bureau



LINCOLN - Some Sand Hills residents are fighting a plan to obtain a federal scenic byway designation for a stretch of Highway 2 that dissects the unique expanse of grass-covered hills of sand in Nebraska.
While proponents dismiss any concerns and say the honor is designed to boost tourism, opponents fear the fine print. They say the federal designation could curtail private property rights of ranchers and head off things like wind farms, cellular phone towers and farm-building construction along the byway.
A group in the Hyannis area obtained a resolution of opposition from the Grant County Board and says it has collected signatures of nearly 100 local landowners against the scenic designation.
"We think it infringes on property rights. We don't think it will help agriculture or increase tourism," said Alice Sibbitt, whose family ranch sits right along Nebraska Highway 2 west of Hyannis.
Proponents say the designation is simply about increasing awareness of and traffic on Highway 2 - not government regulations - and to enhance tourist spending in struggling rural communities.
"I'm a little confused about (the opposition). We don't have that kind of power," said Jeanne Davis, a board member and treasurer of the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, which is bidding to become Nebraska's first federally designated scenic highway.
Davis, who lives in Hyannis, said local planning commissions and county boards would continue to govern what is built or not built along Highway 2, whether it's declared a federal scenic road or not.
"We're not trying to infringe on anyone's rights or privileges," Davis said.
Any concerns about that, she said, will be addressed in a management plan that is being drafted for the scenic byway, which would extend 272 miles from Grand Island to Alliance.
There are nearly 130 roads designated as scenic byways or All-American roads under a program started in 1991 by the U.S. Transportation Department.
The list includes the Strip in Las Vegas, Maine's Acadia Byway, Trail Ridge Road west of Estes Park, Colo., and highways through western Iowa's Loess Hills, South Dakota's Black Hills and Kansas' Flint Hills.
Doug Hecox of the Federal Highway Administration, which administers the program, said the goal is to encourage tourist traffic by recognizing special landscapes.
There is no federal power to limit development, Hecox said, other than restrictions on new billboards.
"This is not a federal land grab," he said.
The Sandhills Journey group is progressing with its federal application in the expectation that a new round of applicants will be taken in the coming months.
Just last month, the group began work on renovating a landmark barn in Broken Bow into a visitors center.
The renovation was undertaken to enhance the chances that Highway 2 - called one of America's most scenic drives by the late CBS News reporter Charles Kuralt - will win the federal designation.
Opponents say most of their concerns rest with the management plan and what a federal designation could lead to in the future.
Grant County Commissioner Brian Brennemann, who was part of a unanimous board vote to oppose the designation, said he distrusts the federal government and is wary of additional regulations that might follow such a designation.
Both Brennemann and Sibbitt pointed to what happened along Nebraska's Niobrara River when it became a federally designated scenic river. They said landowners along the river now have several new regulations to deal with.
Sibbitt said she was suspicious of provisions that allow a scenic roadway to include up to 20 miles on either side of the road in its management plan. That seems excessive, she said.
"I like tourists - we have guests here on our ranch all the time - but they don't also control my viewshed," Sibbitt said. Viewshed is a term to describe the area that can be seen from a scenic byway.
Davis, of the scenic byway board, said the 20-mile management provision doesn't carry any regulatory teeth.
It simply allows attractions that are a few miles off the road, such as the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, to share in the publicity and federal grants available for designated byways.
If Grant County doesn't want to be part of a federal designation, that probably can be accommodated, Davis said. Grant
County is the only entity to oppose the designation, she said.
"If I'm going to put any energy into this," Davis said, "it will be for counties that want it."
 

jigs

Well-known member
cattle Army, I am shocked you would post something like this..... when has the Govt. ever taken an interest in land and proposed a "tourism venture" that went bad?? they have the best intentions and if things get out of hand they will just "claim" the land as public....then all your worries will be for nothing...


we are SO lucky to have a group of all knowing do gooders running this nation. they know better than we do when it comes to saving the rural heritage and natural beauty!
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
They say the federal designation could curtail private property rights of ranchers and head off things like wind farms, cellular phone towers and farm-building construction along the byway.

Dang right there, you know it will happen!
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
It would be nice if they would give counties that sign up the option to completely seceed from program at any time without any strings. These government deals always seem to evolve into something else that wasn't part of the original deal.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
It would be nice if they would give counties that sign up the option to completely seceed from program at any time without any strings. These government deals always seem to evolve into something else that wasn't part of the original deal.


We tried that ' secession' deal awhile back...didn't turn out quiet like we planned it!!!!

I wouldn't recommend it. :wink: :wink:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Sandhusker said:
It would be nice if they would give counties that sign up the option to completely seceed from program at any time without any strings. These government deals always seem to evolve into something else that wasn't part of the original deal.


We tried that ' secession' deal awhile back...didn't turn out quiet like we planned it!!!!

I wouldn't recommend it. :wink: :wink:

You didn't have pre- approval in ink before you tried it.
 

jigs

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
[

We tried that ' secession' deal awhile back...didn't turn out quiet like we planned it!!!!

I wouldn't recommend it. :wink: :wink:

damn! how old are you???[/b]
 

hopalong

Well-known member
jigs said:
kolanuraven said:
[

We tried that ' secession' deal awhile back...didn't turn out quiet like we planned it!!!!

I wouldn't recommend it. :wink: :wink:

damn! how old are you???[/b]

According to all she has seen and done in her lifetime she has to be over 300 yrs old, if it had been done she done it, if it has been seen she saw it, if it was thought about she was the one thinking about it, he!! her education alone had to have taken 30 yrs! :roll: :roll: :roll: 3 phs and at least one masters, not to mention the teachers certificate :roll: :roll:
 

nonothing

Well-known member
hopalong said:
jigs said:
kolanuraven said:
[

We tried that ' secession' deal awhile back...didn't turn out quiet like we planned it!!!!

I wouldn't recommend it. :wink: :wink:

damn! how old are you???[/b]

According to all she has seen and done in her lifetime she has to be over 300 yrs old, if it had been done she done it, if it has been seen she saw it, if it was thought about she was the one thinking about it, he!! her education alone had to have taken 30 yrs! :roll: :roll: :roll: 3 phs and at least one masters, not to mention the teachers certificate :roll: :roll:

And you have done many things too memanpa...just not all in the same name.. :roll: :roll:
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
nonothing said:
hopalong said:
jigs said:
damn! how old are you???[/b]

According to all she has seen and done in her lifetime she has to be over 300 yrs old, if it had been done she done it, if it has been seen she saw it, if it was thought about she was the one thinking about it, he!! her education alone had to have taken 30 yrs! :roll: :roll: :roll: 3 phs and at least one masters, not to mention the teachers certificate :roll: :roll:

And you have done many things too memanpa...just not all in the same name.. :roll: :roll:

Thats funny! :lol:
 
Top