Nebraska

Buying Land in Nemaha County, Nebraska

Nemaha County, seat Auburn, on the Missouri River in Nebraska's southeast corner, is confirmed to have no county-wide zoning today -- unusual among counties covered on this site -- while its Planning Commission works on a first-ever Comprehensive Plan and zoning code. The county falls in a single Natural Resources District and is home to Cooper Nuclear Station, Nebraska's only operating nuclear plant.

No County-Wide Zoning Today -- A First Zoning Code Is Being Drafted

Case-by-case / verify locally

Confirmed via the Nebraska Association of County Officials' own statewide county-by-county listing: Nemaha County is currently a non-zoned county. That means, outside the incorporated limits of Auburn, Brock, Brownville, Johnson, Julian, Nemaha, and Peru (each of which has its own separate municipal zoning), unincorporated county land is not currently subject to a county zoning ordinance. That is changing, though not yet finished: the county's own Planning and Zoning page confirms an active Planning Commission is working to draft a first-ever Comprehensive Plan and proposed Zoning Regulations, subject to County Board direction and adoption. A buyer should confirm the current status of that drafting process directly with the county -- and should not assume the absence of zoning today means it will stay that way.

One NRD Countywide

Generally favorable

Nemaha County falls within a single Natural Resources District, the Nemaha NRD, headquartered in Tecumseh, which covers all or part of the state's eight southeasternmost counties. A single-NRD county is simpler to navigate than a county split between two or more districts -- confirm current well-permit and allocation rules for a specific parcel directly with Nemaha NRD.

Cooper Nuclear Station and Its Emergency Planning Zone

Could not confirm

Cooper Nuclear Station, near Brownville on the Missouri River, is Nebraska's only operating nuclear power plant and its single largest electricity generator, at roughly 835 megawatts, owned and operated by the Nebraska Public Power District. The plant's federally defined 10-mile-radius plume Emergency Planning Zone covers Nemaha and Richardson Counties on the Nebraska side (and extends into Missouri as well). A property within that 10-mile radius receives emergency-notification coverage (a wireless/broadcast alert system, not a subscription app) in the event of a plant incident. This is a real, ongoing fact of local geography rather than a land-use restriction in itself -- a buyer near Brownville should ask the county and NPPD directly whether a specific parcel falls within the EPZ and what that means in practice for the property.

No county zoning yet, and a first-ever code now being drafted

Nemaha County is genuinely an outlier compared to many of the counties covered on this site: the Nebraska Association of County Officials' own statewide records list it as not having adopted county-wide zoning. In practice, that means the seven incorporated municipalities in the county -- Auburn (the county seat), Brock, Brownville, Johnson, Julian, Nemaha, and Peru -- each maintain their own separate zoning ordinances covering land inside (and sometimes extending just outside) their limits, while unincorporated county land outside those boundaries has not been subject to a county-wide zoning code. Auburn's own zoning map, for example, lays out districts from low-density residential through industrial, but that framework applies only within Auburn's jurisdiction, not countywide.

That said, this is an active area of change, not a settled permanent condition: Nemaha County's own Planning and Zoning page confirms the county's Planning Commission is presently working to draft a first-ever Comprehensive Plan and to bring proposed Zoning Regulations to the County Board for consideration, as state law requires a comprehensive plan to precede any zoning ordinance. A buyer evaluating unincorporated land in Nemaha County today should confirm two things directly with the county: first, whether any zoning ordinance has been adopted since this page was researched, and second, whatever informal land-use, floodplain, or subdivision review does apply in the meantime even absent formal zoning.

A single NRD, and life near Nebraska's only nuclear plant

Groundwater governance in Nemaha County is straightforward in structure: the entire county falls within a single Natural Resources District, the Nemaha NRD, headquartered in Tecumseh and covering all or part of the eight southeasternmost counties in the state under a 21-member locally elected board. Among its local projects is the Duck Creek Recreation Area, a 62-acre lake roughly five miles northwest of Peru that opened in 2018. Confirm current well-permit and allocation rules for a specific Nemaha County parcel directly with the district.

The county's most distinct feature is arguably Cooper Nuclear Station, located near Brownville on the Missouri River and operated by the Nebraska Public Power District. Commissioned in 1974, it's a boiling-water reactor using the Missouri River for cooling, generating roughly 835 megawatts -- Nebraska's only currently operating nuclear plant and its largest single electricity generator, employing hundreds of full-time workers. The plant's federally required 10-mile plume Emergency Planning Zone extends across Nemaha and Richardson Counties on the Nebraska side of the river (and into Missouri on the other bank), with a modern wireless/broadcast emergency notification system covering that radius rather than requiring residents to sign up for anything. This isn't inherently a red flag for land near the plant -- NPPD is a major long-standing local employer and taxpayer -- but a buyer considering a parcel near Brownville or elsewhere within roughly 10 miles of the plant should ask directly about EPZ status, any applicable emergency-planning considerations, and how the plant's presence factors into local property values and insurance in that specific area.

What we could and couldn't confirm

Nemaha County's non-zoned status is drawn from the Nebraska Association of County Officials' own statewide county-by-county database; the active drafting of a first Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Regulations is drawn from the county's own Planning and Zoning webpage. A significant methodological note: search results repeatedly surfaced a July 2026 'Nemaha County' land use development code adoption story that this research determined, on closer inspection, refers to a different Nemaha County in Kansas (seat Seneca, near Sabetha) -- confirmed by that code's own references to the Sabetha and Seneca extraterritorial jurisdictions -- and that story has been deliberately excluded from this page as inapplicable. Nemaha NRD's single-district coverage and Tecumseh headquarters are drawn from the district's own materials. Cooper Nuclear Station's capacity, commissioning date, and Emergency Planning Zone counties are drawn from Wikipedia, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, and NPPD's own public materials. County office phone numbers and the Assessor's email are drawn from the county's own website and Nebraska Department of Revenue assessor listings.

Verify directly with: Nemaha County Planning and Zoning for the current status of any zoning-drafting process, Nemaha NRD for well permits, and Nebraska Emergency Management Agency or NPPD for any Cooper Nuclear Station Emergency Planning Zone question

Who to Call Before Buying Land in Nemaha County

We could not confirm a direct email for Nemaha County Planning and Zoning or the County Clerk -- confirm current staff and email by phone. We also could not confirm current, direct contact information for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency's or NPPD's specific Cooper Nuclear Station community-notification office beyond their general public information pages; a buyer with a specific EPZ question should start with the Nemaha County Emergency Management office or NPPD's public-facing Cooper Nuclear Station pages directly.

Planning & Zoning

Nemaha County Planning and Zoning

Current zoning-drafting status, land-use questions for unincorporated Nemaha County, and any applicable floodplain or subdivision review in the meantime.

Phone: (402) 274-4285Official website →

Wells / Private Water