Buying Land in Custer County, Nebraska

Zoning that has been on the books since 2004

Custer County's zoning regulations were formally adopted by the County Board of Supervisors on January 27, 2004, and the county has maintained an active Planning Department since. That department evaluates zoning-change and conditional-use-permit applications, reviews subdivision plans, and updates the zoning and subdivision regulations, while providing staff support to a 9-member Planning Commission, a Board of Adjustment, and the County Board itself. For a buyer, that means a parcel here -- whether near Broken Bow or out in the county's more remote reaches -- sits in a genuine, checkable zoning district rather than an unregulated rural area. Confirm the current district, permitted uses, and any conditional-use history directly with the Planning Department before assuming a specific use, such as a second dwelling or ag-related structure, is allowed.

A county too large for one NRD to cover completely

As the Nebraska state hub explains, NRD boundaries follow watersheds rather than county lines, and Custer County's sheer size makes that especially relevant here. At roughly 2,576 square miles, Custer County is Nebraska's second-largest county by land area (trailing only Cherry County), stretching from cropland in the south toward Sandhills range country along its northern edge. The Lower Loup Natural Resources District, based in Ord, is the dominant player: per Lower Loup's own published master plan, the district's boundary includes 89% of Custer County -- a substantial majority, but explicitly not the whole county.

That leaves roughly 11% of Custer County's land area under a different NRD. The strongest lead this research found: the Central Platte NRD, headquartered in Grand Island, lists Custer County among the 11 counties in its own service area (alongside Dawson, Buffalo, Hall, and others) per its own published directors' page -- but that listing doesn't specify how much of Custer County falls under Central Platte, so treat this as a strong lead rather than a confirmed boundary. Because the county is large enough that a parcel's distance from Broken Bow tells you little about which watershed it drains into, don't assume Lower Loup's well-permit rules, allocations, or any pumping restrictions automatically apply to a specific tract -- confirm coverage directly with Lower Loup or Central Platte NRD (or via the state's NRD boundary map) before relying on either district's rules, particularly for land near the county's outer edges.