Several Gage County landowners are preparing to expand their properties in Beatrice without necessarily purchasing any land.
This is made possible through the city’s new Mow-to-Own program.
“We have a number of lots in town that we’d like to get in somebody’s private hands and have them use them and mow them rather than us maintaining them,†City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said.
The eight plots of land are on Grant, Hill, Market, Mary, Ella, Bell and South 10th streets.
The program would allow homeowners living adjacent to the land to expand their current property, or a developer looking for a lot to build on could acquire a plot as long as they follow through with building on it.
Regardless of the intended use, the selected parties are required to maintain the land, which includes mowing, snow removal and any necessary weed management or tree trimming.
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Anyone primarily residing in Gage or a surrounding county is eligible to apply for the land, as long as they do not owe delinquent real estate or personal property taxes, have had no property maintenance violations within the last 36 months, have kept any accounts with the City of Beatrice Board of Public Works in good standing and continue to meet those conditions after receiving the land.
Each lot will be valued at $60 per square foot. Any participant not interested in building on the land will be credited $500 toward the assigned value for each year that they remain in compliance with the agreement. As soon as the program participant has been credited the full assigned value of the lot, ownership will be transferred to the program participant.
Applications are available through the Community Development Department; processing is $50. Upon approval of the application, the program participant must pay $200 for city paperwork.
Each lot has already had at least one application.
City Attorney Abby Stark said property owners adjacent to the vacant lot will get first priority.
“That’s if they’re not disqualified for some other reason,†Stark said. “If an adjacent owner isn’t interested in a lot, that’s when it’s kind of up for grabs for any other applicant. As long as nothing like that is going on, we basically just evaluate them based on what do they want to do with it and go from there.â€
Lots are also able to be split between two adjacent property owners.