Planning Commission OKs zoning change for retirement homes

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BY MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission on Wednesday approved a zoning change that could possibly avoid future controversies over where nursing homes and assisted-living facilities are located.

The commission voted unanimously to include those facilities as conditional uses in multifamily residential districts and in the O-3 office district, meaning that if they meet certain conditions, they would automatically be allowed in those districts.

Currently, those facilities are allowed only in residential districts and must seek a special permit to locate there.

A little more than a year ago, an application by Agemark Corp. to put an assisted-living facility for Alzheimer’s patients on land at 25th Street and Old Cheney Road touched off a firestorm among neighbors who didn’t think it fit in it what was mostly a neighborhood of single-family homes.

Planning Director Marvin Krout said that fight was not the impetus for Wednesday’s change, “but we were certainly thinking about” it.

Krout said the department hopes the change will encourage developers to look at multifamily and office zoning districts for elder-care facilities, though they could still go through the special permit process and seek to locate in single-family districts.

In other business Wednesday, the commission:

 n Ruled that a redevelopment of the Bank of the West building at 1314 O St. conforms to the city-county comprehensive plan for land use.

Concorde Management is remodeling the first floor of the building for the bank and creating some additional retail space, and it plans to renovate the other five floors into condos.

The estimated cost of the projects is $5.8 million, including approximately $595,000 in tax-increment financing for public improvements at the site.

n Approved an annexation and zoning change for land on the southwest corner of 70th Street and Pine Lake Road for a small housing and retail development.

Realty Trust Group, the developer, is proposing 53,000 square feet of office and retail space along with 11 residential dwellings on the site, which is southwest of The Home Depot.

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