Council cuts red tape for small sheds, garages

McCOOK, Neb. -- Citizens looking to construct a garage or storage shed on their property should find the process easier after the McCook City Council loosened up accessory building zoning restrictions earlier this week. The change was appreciated by at least a few citizens in attendance, including one that claimed it would significantly reduce the workload for his wife.

The changes included removing a strict two accessory building limit, regardless of lot size, and removing size restrictions placed on the two buildings.

McCook resident Jon Stewart said the size restrictions, which set a maximum floor area of accessory buildings, hampered his desire to construct a three-car garage on his N. Cherokee property. Stewart said, with a chuckle, it broke his heart to see his wife mowing such a large yard on a regular basis and added it had taken years of mowing to convince her to let him build the garage.

Stewart asked City Council with a light-hearted smile to approve the zoning changes and reduce his wife's workload.

Chris Maris with Maris General Construction said he could not top the Stewart request, but did have his own problems with the accessory building provisions. Maris said his construction company was located on roughly 2 1/2 acres of property and had plenty of room for a third storage shed, which they sought to construct but were unable to due to zoning ordinance.

City Manager Nate Schneider said the city had received five to ten requests for modifications, due to the accessory building provisions, which were recently adopted along with sweeping updates to the city zoning ordinance.

Schneider said the updates had done a lot of good but a couple of issues had arisen and certain provisions might not be applicable to McCook.

"I don't think it's a bad thing to ease up on the restrictions," said Schneider.

City Council agreed and unanimously approved retracting the two building limit and sq. ft. limitations for accessory buildings, while also suspending the required three reading rule for the item.