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Nebraska
Divided Planning Commission Approves Downzoning of Lincoln's Witherbee Neighborhood; Tax-Increment Financing for Downtown Mixed-Use Project Passes
On seemingly divergent tracks, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission endorsed a proposed $10 million downtown tax-increment financing project with street-level retail topped by some 40 condos, but also approved downzoning for the Witherbee neighborhood in the central city to restrict conversion of single-family houses into duplexes and construction of duplexes and apartments.
The commission approved such a local downzoning request for the 10th time since 2002, including the two latest meetings, reports Lincoln Journal Star writer Matt Olberding, noting that Commissioners Eugene Carroll, Mary Bills-Strand and Gerry Kreiser voted against the change. Commissioner Carroll said the area's density of about four units per acre was already lower than in many new subdivisions on the fringe, voicing his and the other two commissioners' concern about the ''trend of continuously downzoning our neighborhoods.''
With Planning Department official Steve Henrichsen saying that 40 percent of Witherbee residents are renters and that the neighborhood replaced only 33 single-family homes with 90 duplexes and apartments since 1970, the commission majority dismissed the downzoning concerns, backing residents who argued for the change to protect the character of their neighborhood as one of affordable single-family homes.
Commissioner Dick Esseks said rental unit vacancy rates were up, which means that rather than seek more duplexes, the city should keep affordable homes for buyers. In response, Commissioner Carroll pointed out that further downzoning in the city core makes affordable rental housing harder to find. -- Lincoln Journal Star 9/13/2006
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