Buying Land in Lancaster County, Nebraska

One Joint Planning Department, but Jurisdiction Runs on Distance Rings

Generally favorable

Unlike Douglas County (Omaha), where the city and county run genuinely separate zoning codes and departments, Lincoln and Lancaster County share a single joint Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department and one 9-member Planning Commission, appointed by the mayor with the concurrence of the City Council and County Board. That doesn't mean jurisdiction is simple, though: the City of Lincoln's own zoning authority extends 3 miles beyond its actual city limits, other incorporated towns (Waverly, Hickman, and similar) get a 1-mile extraterritorial ring, and the County Board itself holds zoning jurisdiction only over whatever unincorporated land falls outside all of those rings. A parcel that looks 'rural' on a map can still fall inside Lincoln's 3-mile jurisdiction and be governed by city zoning standards rather than county ones -- confirm which ring a specific parcel sits in directly with the joint Planning Department before assuming county rules apply.

Split Across Two NRDs: Lower Platte South and Nemaha

Case-by-case / verify locally

Lancaster County is not entirely inside one NRD. Most of the county, including Lincoln itself, falls in the Lower Platte South NRD (headquartered in Lincoln, covering roughly 1,600 square miles across Lancaster, Cass, and parts of Otoe, Seward, Butler, and Saunders Counties). A smaller southeastern slice of Lancaster County instead falls in the Nemaha NRD, based out of Tecumseh -- confirmed via Lancaster County's own website, which separately lists the Lancaster County-appointed directors serving on each district's board. Well-permit thresholds, groundwater allocations, and any pumping restrictions are set independently by whichever district actually covers a given parcel, so confirm which NRD applies before assuming Lower Platte South's rules (the more commonly cited one, given Lincoln's location) automatically cover a specific piece of land.

A Live Data-Center Land Rush Is Outpacing the County's Zoning Code

Case-by-case / verify locally

This is a specific, current, unresolved land-use fight, not generic capital-city growth. Google's roughly $600 million, 570-635-acre 'Lincoln Hyperscale Campus' near I-80, Highway 77, N. 40th Street, and Bluff Road is already under construction. Separately, Sagebrush Infrastructure Partners has signed purchase agreements covering roughly 1,700 acres from 13 landowners west of Hallam for a proposed 1.7-gigawatt data-center campus ('Sagebrush 1') -- enough electricity, by the developer's own figure, to power 1.3 million homes. Lancaster County's zoning code does not currently address data centers as a distinct use, and in August 2026 County Commissioner Matt Schulte introduced a 12-month moratorium on new data-center construction and permitting to give the county time to write specific rules. As of research that moratorium had NOT passed -- the board revised the proposal and postponed a vote rather than adopting or rejecting it outright. If you're evaluating land anywhere near Hallam, the Highway 77/I-80 corridor, or another site being optioned by a data-center developer, ask the joint Planning Department directly about the moratorium's current status, any interim zoning-text amendments, and whether a specific parcel is inside an area under an active purchase option or rezoning request.