Valley neighbors file lawsuit against city for proposed RV park

VALLEY, Neb. (WOWT) - Neighbors in Valley are taking the city to court.

It has to do with a proposed RV park near the Platte River. The developer has said he listened to their concerns and made compromises.

The Valley city council voted 2-2 last month with the mayor breaking the tie to approve the application for an RV park along the Platte River. But neighbors have filed a lawsuit asking a judge to step in and stop it.

The plaintiffs are the Sokol Camp Association, been since 1936. They shared their concerns this summer with 6 On Your Side.

Sokol Camp is made up of 56-houses here near the Platte in Valley, Nebraska. One-third of them are full-time residents.

“The boats, the noise they make. The congestion. How will that affect the neighborhood?” said neighbors in June.

The developer wants to put in more than 200 pads, either concrete or gravel, so that people with RVs could enjoy the outdoors from May through September.

“It’s not a fraternity party every weekend. These are families who come here to enjoy the outdoors,” said Brad Brown with Platte River Resorts during the last council meeting.

Neighbors complained that allowing loud airboats in the RV park would take away from the serenity. So the developer decided to prohibit them. He also reduced the number of RV pads from 290 to 230.

In the lawsuit, neighbors said they were blindsided by the last second changes brought to the city council especially considering the planning board had rejected the original plan. They also question how any of this construction can be done in a floodway.

The neighbors also question that because a certain percentage of them filed written protests there needed to be a third council member to approve the RV park instead of the mayor breaking the 2-2 tie.

The city of Valley has 30 days to answer the lawsuit.

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