Clearwater Hosts First Meeting On Creating 10-Year Plan

About a dozen people turned out Wednesday night to talk about Clearwater's future and start planning for the next decade.

The Village of Clearwater hosted the town hall meeting at the Clearwater Fire Hall to gather information to form a comprehensive plan that will take the community into 2026. There will also be a housing study, zoning regulations and a blight and substandard study/redevelopment plan. 

At least three more town hall meetings will occur before the plans are complete. The Village will then review the community-based plans before formal approval. 

Miller and Associates, a Kearney-based Consulting and Engineering firm, has partnered with the Village to develop the plans. The Community Development Block Grant  will pay for 75 percent of the plan with the Village matching 25 percent. 

Residents, business owners and elected officials participated in the hour-long meeting, discussing strengths and challenges of the community. Certified planner Brenda Jensen facilitated the meeting. 

Jensen said the comprehensive plan will serve as a guide on how the community will grow, while the zoning is "the teeth to how Clearwater will grow." She told the village council members present, "There's no point in writing regulations that you don't feel comfortable enforcing."

Jensen spent the first half of the meeting explaining how the different aspects are necessary for Clearwater to possibly receive grant funding in the future since many require a comprehensive plan. It will be written in a way to help meet those requirements, she said.

"A successful project begins with the end in mind," Jensen said. "This will be Clearwater's 10-year plan. What is the vision and how we will get there will be planned."

Jensen said businesses often ask about tax increment financing (TIF), which not a possibility without a blight and substandard study. Villages are able to declare 100 percent of their corporate limits as a blight area, she said.

"The benefit of creating blighted areas is that they become redevelopment areas, and we may want to utilize TIF to do that," she said. 

Jensen clarified that being in a blighted area does not affect property taxes or resale value. As for TIF, Jensen said it's important to understand that the base taxes still go toward the school, NRD, etc. She said increment taxes for up to 15 years go toward TIF. 

During discussion, Clearwater residents said some of the strengths of the community are the school system, park, working together as a community, fire department and EMTs, eagerness to visualize progress and growth, young families moving back, close knit, safety, steakhouse, grocery store, hardware store, two feed stores, convenience store, new bank, dairy service, John Deere museum, bakery, cabinet shop and Santa shop.

Among the challenges, housing was the most talked-about issue for Clearwater. Community members said few houses go on the market, and when they do, they sell before 

The date of the second town hall meeting has not been set at this time.