Residents protest Van Dorn development

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By MARK ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Commercial development doesn’t belong on the city block bordered by busy Ninth and 10th streets north of Van Dorn, area residents told the City Council Monday.

B&J Partnership, the real estate arm of Speedway Motors, plans a small retail and office park that is likely to include a Starbucks coffee shop, dry cleaning store and sandwich shop.

That  busy corner is one of the main entrances to the city, said Alene Swinehart of the Irvingdale Neighborhood Association, which opposes the plan.

Traffic coming from Nebraska 77 by way of Van Dorn today finds, “It’s all trees and residential,” she said.

Replacing that pastoral scene with commercial development doesn’t fit the city’s interests, she said during the public hearing.

The council’s vote on proposed zoning changes that would allow the project is expected next week.

Permitting this development, she said, would further the creep of development down Ninth and 10th streets, which already have traffic problems.

Attorney Mark Hunzeker called the project a neighborhood improvement.

Currently, the block holds several rundown rental properties. There is too much traffic for the area to be redeveloped as residential, he said.

B&J’s proposal for developing the entire block deals with the traffic issues, he said. If development were to occur piecemeal, there would be no coordinated plan for dealing with traffic problems.

Area resident Zemis Sedricks said the commercial development would drive down area property values. With encouragement and incentives, he said, the area’s residential properties could be revitalized.

Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.