Any doubt about the level of public interest in the future of Platteview Road may have been dispelled at a recent meeting in Sarpy County.
The session had been billed as a gathering at which representatives of agencies such as Sarpy County, the State of Nebraska and the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency would discuss possibilities for Platteview Road, but where no public testimony would be permitted.
But a standing-room-only crowd of several hundred people at the Sarpy County Board's meeting room had much to say, particularly about the need to decide Platteview Road's future route quickly.
Plans for the road have moved front and center because a bridge being built over the Missouri River will connect with it.
Springfield Mayor Mike Dill, speaking from the audience, told officials that Platteview Road is key to his city's development. Uncertainty about its route is a major obstacle for developers planning to bring new homes or businesses to Springfield, Dill said.
Real estate agents said uncertainty about the route makes it difficult to sell land or homes in the area.
"They don't know the value of their property because they don't know if they're going to be moved out in a year or 20 years," Melissa Jarecke, a real estate agent with NP Dodge Real Estate and a County Board candidate, said of people living in the Platteview Road area.
"We'd like to know what the plans are, not ... in 2050, but what's happening in 2012 to 2015."
Others warned that estimates of a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in truck traffic for the new Platteview Road are understated. The directness of Platteview Road as a connector to Interstate 29 in Iowa could prove attractive to trucks operated by Werner Enterprises, the Omaha-based trucking company, officials were told.
Officials also heard calls for Nebraska Highway 370 to be the southern portion of a beltway around the metropolitan Omaha area instead of Platteview Road, because Highway 370 is already an east-west four-lane highway with a connection to Interstate 80. Under that scenario, Platteview Road would retain its rural nature.
Because Platteview Road already reaches east-west across Sarpy County, its potential to be the southern loop of an Omaha beltway has frequently been mentioned.
Mike Piernicky, a transportation specialist at Olsson Associates of Omaha, told the gathering that planners are attempting to accommodate Sarpy County's future growth while retaining as much of the rural flavor of its western part as possible.
Sarpy County's population is currently projected to double by 2050 from its current 150,000, Piernicky said.
"We need to start getting out in front of that, planning for that land use so it works well, planning for transportation facilities to support that."
He said a series of hearings will be held to gather views from residents.
"The point of this study is to look at all the different types of development, all the way from low density to keeping the western part of the county and its acreages rural in nature," Piernicky said.
"We need to acknowledge that input, but also we need to accommodate this proposed future growth."
Tim Weander, District 2 engineer for the Nebraska Department of Roads, said that initially, the new bridge was expected to open by fall 2013. But last summer's flooding has pushed the bridge's expected opening to spring 2014, he said.
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