2 large developments OK’d as part of Comp Plan review

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BY MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star

A large retail development on 84th Street between Van Dorn and South streets and an office park near 60th and Old Cheney Road were among projects that got the green light from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission Wednesday during its annual review of the city-county land use plan.

Those two were the most notable among several proposed projects that are seeking amendments to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which lays out guidelines for land use in the city and unincorporated areas of the county.

Realty Trust has been trying to develop a retail center on the northeast corner of 84th and Van Dorn for 10 years.

Its requests have been denied several times by the city because the site cannot be adequately served by existing city sewer infrastructure and new sewer east of 84th in that area is not planned for 10 years or more.

However, Steve Henrichsen, the Planning Department’s special projects manager, said the city recently determined a portion of the site could be served by existing sewer to the west if downstream improvements are made to Dead Man’s Run.

Planning Commissioners recommended amending the Comprehensive Plan to change the designated land use of the site from residential to commercial and also to designate it as the location for a commercial center.

The amendment, if approved by the City Council, would allow Realty Trust to develop about 200,000 to 250,000 square feet of commercial space in a first phase.  Additional development at the site would have to wait for sewer on the east side of 84th Street, which could take 10 years or more.

Previously a commercial center had been designated somewhere in the square mile from 84th to 98th streets and from Van Dorn to South streets.

Henrichsen said it was appropriate to designate the commercial center at that site not only because there is developer interest, but also because there has been interest from large retailers in additional sites along 84th Street south of O Street.

The office park at 60th and Old Cheney is proposed by West Gate Bank, whose headquarters are directly west.

Carl Sjulin, West Gate president, said he wants to develop about 20 acres east of the bank into a “higher-end” office park with buildings similar in style to West Gate’s.

Plans, which are “very preliminary,” call for several low-rise office buildings and some “incidental” retail uses such as services like dry cleaning and restaurants, Sjulin said.

The land is the site of several acreage homes, all but one of which are vacant.

One notable Comprehensive Plan amendment that was approved Wednesday was not tied to a specific project but rather to an overall city policy.

For several years in the 1990s, Lincoln conducted annual annexation studies, which sometimes led the city to annex land even if there was no development interest in it.

Since 2000, though, the city has not conducted the studies, and its general unwritten policy has been not to annex an area, even if city infrastructure has reached the area, unless a developer or landowner asks for it.

That has led to pockets around the city where unannexed land is nearly completely surrounded by the city limits.

And according to the Homebuilders Association of Lincoln, who asked for the review to be reinstated, it leads to inequities in taxing and also helps drive up land prices.

The amendment, if approved by the City Council, will put language in the Comprehensive Plan directing that the city should “promptly annex” land if it is contiguous to the city and generally urban in character, as well as land that is engulfed by the city.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.