Redesign ordered on redesign

The redesign of downtown Omaha’s run-down 16th Street is going back to the drawing board amid concerns that the proposal would fail to revitalize the corridor.

The project had seemed to be gaining momentum, winning buy-in from 16th Street’s major tenants and private interests.

But the project hit a buzzsaw this month when it went before a new city board with oversight on urban design issues. In the end, the board authorized the plans to move forward — only on the condition that the plans change.

The decision sets a remarkable tone for future developments seeking city approval: If a proposal’s design isn’t good enough, the city board — made up of private-sector representatives in urban design, art, landscaping, architecture and engineering — is ready to hold up a project.

The decision is not setting off alarms among private developers because, as spelled out in city code, private proposals do not face the same scrutiny as public buildings or projects with substantial public funding.

Private projects could come before the board if they are in certain zoning areas that have higher design standards and have a design matter to resolve.

On public projects, however, the board has the power to stop a public entity from seeking bids for construction work or to hold up a city building permit.

It’s unclear whether private development projects that receive tax-increment financing — a public property tax incentive — will be reviewed under the board’s broader authority over public projects.

But the 16th Street project shows how public and private interests often commingle.

The proposal involves construction along public sidewalks and a public street. Yet an unnamed private donor has backed the redesign to this point, and indications are that the donor would contribute to the concept’s implementation. Planners had estimated that the project would cost between $6 million and $9 million.

“I’d hate to move generous people aside,” Joe Gudenrath, executive director of the Downtown Improvement District and a coordinator on the project, told the Urban Design Review Board.

The board, which grew out of the Omaha By Design initiative, found problem after problem with the 16th Street design: a street median, the landscaping plan, the sidewalk design, a place for public art.

“To me, it’s not a cohesive design,” said Bob Peters, a former city planning director who sits on the board.

Said Mike McMeekin, the board’s chairman and president of the engineering firm Lamp, Rynearson & Associates, “We don’t want to be part of another mistake.”

After an hour of questioning, the project’s own urban designer, Doug Bisson of HDR Inc., said, “That’s a redesign. That’s a complete redesign.”

Jay Noddle, a prominent real estate developer who sits on the board, said some private developers will see the board as an impediment to development. But he said he would have been reluctant to join the board if he thought it would get in the way of progress.

Noddle called the board a tool that developers can use in working through new design rules.

“The whole idea is to do what we can as a community to upgrade the quality of what’s built and renovated,” he said.

The new city board was formed in 2007 out of discussions prompted by bland “big box” store designs that evolved into comprehensive urban design rules for Omaha developments.

Since it started operating in December 2008, the board has reviewed nine projects, starting with the downtown baseball stadium. Three of those projects were private developments, including a CVS Pharmacy at 72nd and Maple Streets and a northwest Omaha storage business.

The board turned away a pitch from Dino’s Storage for a metal building near 147th Street and West Maple Road. It later approved a brick building with glass windows that looks like an office building, said Jed Moulton, the city’s urban design manager.

But over a year into its operation, the board is still deciding which projects will face its review.

“This is a learning process, this new board,” said Rick Cunningham, the city’s planning director.

Organizers of the 16th Street project seemed caught off-guard at last week’s board meeting.

Since last summer, the Downtown Improvement District and consultant HDR Inc. have been crafting a plan to revitalize 16th Street — a bustling avenue in Omaha’s past that suffered when a hotel built in 1970 stopped through traffic on the street and retail stores left downtown.

The latest plan would undo a failed 1980s-era pedestrian mall by trimming wide sidewalks, installing a landscaped median that would hold public art in spots and creating a festival-style plaza outside the Orpheum Theater.

The sidewalks were designed to meet the city standard of 20 feet across. But without landscaping or benches in the sidewalk plan, board members criticized the design as too barren and suggested that 16th Street might need narrower sidewalks.

The median was meant to address the Public Works Department’s desire for turning lanes on 16th Street. But just days before the meeting, the project’s supporters were told a turning lane wasn’t necessary, making the median less necessary.

Said Bisson, “At some point, we should have been told there was a change.”

Peters said the design presented would get in the way of business development along the street.

“We’re putting a fabric in place that, in my opinion, creates a barrier to many of the things we’re trying to accomplish,” he said.

David Ciaccio, a landscape architect who sits on the board, said he wanted to see more parking in hopes of attracting more stores. He said the project is important to downtown.

“This project has to happen, the sooner the better, I think.”

Contact the writer:

444-1128, jeff.robb@owh.com

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