Property owners plan to fight City of Omaha to rebuild after tornado

WATERLOO, Neb. (WOWT) - Waterloo resident Kelli Armstrong lived at her rural property on West Dodge Road until a tornado in April destroyed it.

She wants to rebuild, but the city of Omaha has told her she can’t because her property falls in a floodway.

“You try to clean up after tornado stuff, and then you’re battling with city of Omaha jurisdiction in what we don’t really think should be their jurisdiction,” Armstrong said.

She said it’s a fight she and a group of property owners will eventually have to take to the city.

“Omaha has come in and based all of those regulations that they put in place in their extra territorial jurisdiction without allowing any of us landowners out there who don’t get to vote for the city of Omaha.

“They still want to collect tax money off of our land, but we are not allowed by their new regulations to do anything with that land. We can’t inhabit it, we can’t build on it.”

She said they also take issue with the fact there’s a planned development less than a mile from her property, near where Highway 275 and Blondo Street intersect.

According to FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer map, that also falls into the high-risk flood zone, but it’s an area that’s less risky.

A separate issue is their land valuations.

Armstrong told 6 News the value of her land dropped after the tornado, but she wants to see it lowered more.

“I’m hoping to get them to place the value of the property at zero until we can, as a group, get an attorney and go after the city of Omaha to create fair and equitable regulations in that area that is affected by flood zoning and the tornado destruction,” she said.

She and other property owners said they’ll be at the Douglas County Board of Equalization hearing on Tuesday to talk about their valuations.

6 News reached out to the Omaha Planning Department for comment but did not hear back.

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