(A) If the City Council adopts zoning or other regulations pursuant to Neb. RS 19-901 et seq., except as provided in division (B) below, the Council shall provide for the appointment of a Board of Adjustment. Any actions taken by the Board of Adjustment shall not exceed the powers granted by division (F) below.
(Neb. RS 19-907)
(B) If the county has adopted a comprehensive development plan, as defined by Neb. RS 23-114.02, and is enforcing zoning regulations based upon such a plan, the zoning board of adjustment of the county shall, upon request of the City Council, serve as the zoning board of adjustment for the city. If the city is located in more than one county, it shall be served, by request or otherwise, only by the county zoning board of adjustment of the county in which the greatest area of the city is located, and the jurisdiction of such county zoning board of adjustment shall include all portions of the city and its extraterritorial control, regardless of county lines.
(Neb. RS 19-912.01)
(C) (1) The Board of Adjustment shall consist of five regular members, plus one additional member designated as an alternate who shall attend and serve only when one of the regular members is unable to attend for any reason, each to be appointed for a term of three years and removable for cause by the appointing authority upon written charges and after public hearings. Vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term of any member whose term becomes vacant. One member only of the Board of Adjustment shall be appointed from the membership of the Planning Commission, and the loss of membership on the Planning Commission by such member shall also result in his or her immediate loss of membership on the Board of Adjustment and the appointment of another Planning Commissioner to the Board of Adjustment. The first vacancy occurring on the Board of Adjustment shall be filled by the appointment of a person who resides in the extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction of the city at such time as more than 200 persons reside within such area if the Board does not already include such a person. Thereafter, at all times, at least one member of the Board of Adjustment shall reside outside of the corporate boundaries of the city but within its extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction.
(2) The Board of Adjustment shall adopt rules in accordance with the provisions of any ordinance adopted pursuant to Neb. RS 19-901 to 19-914. Meetings of the Board of Adjustment shall be held at the call of the Chairperson and at such other times as the Board may determine. Such Chairperson, or in his or her absence, the Acting Chairperson, may administer oaths and compel the attendance of witnesses. All meetings of the Board shall be open to the public. The Board shall keep minutes of its proceedings, showing the vote of each member upon each question, or if absent or failing to vote, indicating such fact, and shall keep records of its examinations and other official actions, all of which shall be immediately filed in the office of the Board and shall be a public record.
(Neb. RS 19-908)
(D) A number of members equal to a majority of the number of regular members appointed to the Board of Adjustment shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business. All members of an appointed Board of Adjustment shall serve without compensation and shall hold no other city office except for the member of the Planning Commission appointed to serve on the Board of Adjustment. No member of the Board of Adjustment shall serve in the capacity of both Chairperson and Secretary of the Board. The Secretary shall keep the full and correct minutes and records of all meetings and file them with the City Clerk, where they shall be available for public inspection during office hours.
(E) Appeals to the Board of Adjustment may be taken by any person aggrieved or by any officer, department, board or bureau of the city affected by any decision of the administrative officer. Such appeal shall be taken within a reasonable time, as provided by the rules of the Board, by filing with the officer from whom the appeal is taken and with the Board of Adjustment a notice of appeal specifying the grounds thereof. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the Board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken. An appeal stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action appealed from unless the officer from whom the appeal is taken certifies to the Board of Adjustment, after the notice of appeal shall have been filed with him or her, that by reason of facts stated in the certificate, a stay would, in his or her opinion, cause imminent peril to life or property. In such case, proceedings shall not be stayed otherwise than by a restraining order, which may be granted by the Board of Adjustment or by a court of record on application, on notice to the officer from whom the appeal is taken and on due cause shown. The Board of Adjustment shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal, give public notice thereof, as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time. Upon the hearing, any party may appear in person or by agent or by attorney.
(Neb. RS 19-909)
(F) (1) The Board of Adjustment shall, subject to such appropriate conditions and safeguards as may be established by the City Council, have only the following powers:
(a) To hear and decide appeals when it is alleged there is error in any order, requirement, decision or determination made by an administrative official or agency based on or made in the enforcement of any zoning regulation or any regulation relating to the location or soundness of structures, except that the authority to hear and decide appeals shall not apply to decisions made by the City Council or Planning Commission regarding a conditional use or special exception under Neb. RS 19-929(3);
(b) To hear and decide, in accordance with the provisions of any zoning regulation, requests for interpretation of any map; and
(c) When, by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness or shape of a specific piece of property at the time of the enactment of the zoning regulations, or by reason of exceptional topographic conditions or other extraordinary and exceptional situation or condition of such piece of property, the strict application of any enacted regulation under Neb. RS 19-901, 19-903 to 19-904.01 and division (C) above and this division (F) would result in peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties to or exceptional and undue hardships upon the owner of such property, to authorize, upon an appeal relating to the property, a variance from such strict application so as to relieve such difficulties or hardship, if such relief may be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantially impairing the intent and purpose of any ordinance or resolution.
(2) (a) No such variance shall be authorized by the Board unless it finds that:
1. The strict application of the zoning regulation would produce undue hardship;
2. Such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district and the same vicinity;
3. The authorization of such variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and the character of the district will not be changed by the granting of the variance; and
4. The granting of such variance is based upon reason of demonstrable and exceptional hardship as distinguished from variations for purposes of convenience, profit or caprice.
(b) No variance shall be authorized unless the Board finds that the condition or situation of the property concerned or the intended use of the property is not of so general or recurring a nature as to make reasonably practicable the formulation of a general regulation to be adopted as an amendment to the zoning regulations.
(3) In exercising the powers granted in this division (F), the Board may, in conformity with Neb. RS 19-901 to 19-915, reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify the order, requirement, decision or determination appealed from, and may make such order, requirement, decision or determination as ought to be made, and to that end shall have all the powers of the officer from whom the appeal is taken. The concurring vote of four members of the Board shall be necessary to reverse any order, requirement, decision or determination of any such administrative official or to decide in favor of the applicant on any matter upon which it is required to pass under any such regulation or to effect any variation in such regulation.
(Neb. RS 19-910)
(G) Any person or persons, jointly or severally, aggrieved by any decision of the Board of Adjustment, or any taxpayer, or any officer, department, board or bureau of the city, may present to the District Court a petition duly verified setting forth that such decision is illegal, in whole or in part, and specifying the grounds of such illegality. Such petition must be presented to the court within 15 days after the filing of the decision in the office of the Board. Upon the filing of such petition, a summons shall be issued and be served upon the Board of Adjustment, together with a copy of the petition. Return of service shall be made within four days after the issuance of the summons. Within ten days after the return day of such summons, the Board of Adjustment shall file an answer to the petition, which shall admit or deny the substantial averments of the petition and shall state the contentions of the Board with reference to the matters in dispute as disclosed by the petition. The answer shall be verified in like manner as required for the petition. At the expiration of the time for filing answer, the court shall proceed to hear and determine the cause without delay and shall render judgment thereon according to the forms of law. If, upon the hearing, it appears to the Court that testimony is necessary for the proper disposition of the matter, it may take evidence or appoint a referee to take such evidence as it may direct and report the same to the Court with his or her findings of fact and conclusions of law, which shall constitute a part of the proceedings upon which the determination of the Court shall be made. The Court may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify the decision brought up for review. The appeal to the District Court shall not stay proceedings upon the decision appealed from, but the Court may, on application, on notice to the Board and on due cause shown, grant a restraining order. Any appeal from such judgment of the District Court shall be prosecuted in accordance with the general laws of the state regulating appeals in actions at law.
(Neb. RS 19-912)