Nebraska Highway Controversy
Plan to Make Sand Hills Road a Scenic Byway Has Raised Some Concerns
Although many Nebraska residents support designating State Highway 2 as an All-American road, some Grant County residents are leery of possibly more federal regulations.
There are plans to designate the 272 miles of Highway 2 that traverses Nebraska's beautiful and unique sand hills region as a scenic highway. Whether this would be good or bad is now being debated.
Background
Since 1991, the U.S. Transportation Department has named almost 130 roads as All-American roads or byways. Included among them are Maine's Acadia Byway, Colorado's Trail Ridge Road, the Las Vegas Strip, and roads through Iowa's Loess Hills, the Black Hills of South Dakota. Along with the designation and its accompanying publicity, areas along and near the roads are eligible for federal grants.
Highway 2 cuts across a land of grass-covered hills, meandering crystal clear rivers often used for canoeing and fishing, small lakes, and sparsely populated towns. It is primarily the home for numerous species of wildlife, cattle ranches, and more recently of buffalo ranches, thanks to the activities of Atlanta billionaire Ted Turner.
Proponents and Opponents
The move to name this highway as Nebraska's first federally designated scenic highway is being led by the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, a group of residents who see nothing but good if their proposal is accepted. Their main goal, the group states, is to promote tourism in an area which is virtually unknown to most Americans. They cite that the region is often economically depressed and any attempt to bring money into struggling rural towns, most of them with populations only between 30 and 200, can only be beneficial to both the area and the state.
Critics see otherwise. In an area of the nation which is strongly conservative and wary of anything that involves the federal government, some residents are not sure if the benefits outweigh their perceived negatives. One Grant County group has started a petition opposing the project and has collected over 100 names of landowners opposing the idea. One concern is that a provision to include up to 20 miles on either side of the road in its management plan will interfere with ranchers’ property rights and curtail projects such as wind farms, cellular phone towers, and the construction of farm buildings along the highway. They also point out that when Nebraska’s Niobrara River became a federally designated scenic river, landowners along the stream became subject to several new regulations.
Proponents argue back by proclaiming that they are not trying to infringe on anybody’s rights and privileges and that most concerns can be worked out. They argue that the 20 mile provision simply allows attractions, such as the Crescent Lake Wildlife Refuge, to share in the publicity and federal grants. A spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration, which administers the program, further states that his agency’s only goal is to encourage tourist traffic by recognizing special landscapes and that there is no federal power to regulate development other than rules on new billboards.
If a compromise with critics cannot be reached, there is one alternative. Jeanne Davis, treasurer of the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway group notes that Grant County is the only county opposing the plan and, if they choose to be left out, so be it. “[We’re doing this] for counties that want it,” she said.
For more details see: Omaha World-Herald, Friday Morning, January 4, 2008, p.3-B
