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There's a strong dose of back-to-the-future in a vision architects and engineers are sketching for south Omaha.
The evolving South Omaha Development Project plan, unveiled Monday night in its latest form, foresees moving certain streets and assembling parcels of industrial land to entice large employers.
It envisions new houses designed to grow with families — and developments and zoning that would encourage “mother-in-law” houses to accommodate multigenerational living.
The plan imagines street vendors. It discusses balancing some people's desire for a large retailer, such as Walmart, with the complications that such stores can bring for small neighborhood businesses.
The plan suggests an ethnic shopping area — El Mercado — with little bays to allow small entrepreneurs to vend their wares and expand their businesses while creating a festive atmosphere.
Those concepts might sound familiar to Omaha old-timers, because they are variations on ideas that have been proposed before, exist now or were ripped from the pages of local history.
The plan also offers up some different ideas. Some are big and controversial — such as removing Southside Terrace public housing apartments and replacing them with a development that includes a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant. Such a “Library Square Neighborhood Center” would link the new South Omaha Public Library on the Metropolitan Community College South Omaha Campus with the new Salvation Army Kroc Center.
HDR Engineering Inc. urban planner Doug Bisson and other consultants presented the vision-in-progress to about 50 people Monday night at the Durham's TreeTops Restaurant at the Henry Doorly Zoo. The plan is a project of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Latino Center of the Midlands, elected officials and some south Omaha business leaders to direct growth and investment in the area over the next 20 years.
Bisson said the ideas unveiled Monday were the result of public input through surveys, interviews, public design workshops and other means. Right now, the consultants are still working on the plan. More public input is being sought, including the views of Spanish-speaking business owners.
Eventually, maybe by year's end, the consultants will produce a final plan. It could be presented to the Omaha Planning Board and City Council for possible inclusion in the city's master plan. As such, it could influence such public matters as zoning and street construction.
No projects are currently proposed or funded. But the plan could attract private redevelopment, Bisson said.
“Plans give developers confidence,” he said. “They give investors confidence.”
Beth Mincer, who has lived near Eighth and Bancroft Streets for 29 years, said she liked what she heard, although she isn't pining for a Walmart or Chuck E. Cheese's.
She was impressed by the concept of “grow houses.” The homes are designed to be affordable because only the 900-square-foot first floor is finished space. But the basement and attic space can be finished as the family grows.
“I like the neighborhood, because I like the character,” said Mincer, 54. “You want to improve it without losing that.”
The plan, she said, is on the right track to do just that.
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
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