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Nebraska
Omaha Developer Ready to Put People First (and the Car in Back) With City's First New Traditional Development
As Omaha spreads northwest through fields surrounding his 160 hilly acres and his home, some five miles beyond the beltway, developer Herb Freeman decided he can't wait to affirm his conversion to New Urbanism and give the city its first ''new traditional development,'' not only with mixed uses, front porches and sidewalks, but also with varied home types and prices, because, he asked, if ''you want a five-minute walk to morning coffee and a newspaper, where's the coffee shop girl going to live?''
Thus, reports Omaha World-Herald writer Deborah Shanahan, he formed Full Circle Ventures Inc. and brought in a team of Miami Beach-based PlaceMakers experts for a five-day charrette, to involve the community in detailing a neighborhood that ''puts the person first and the car in the back.''
Omaha Planning Director Steve Jensen applauded the move. ''It's the kind of development that's happening across the country and that we haven't had anyone in Omaha try to do,'' he said, hoping that other developers will see its benefit and follow the lead. ''It's something we've been trying to encourage.''
Herb Freeman is happy with the charrette proceedings and results, guided and systematized by PlaceMakers implementation director Nathan Norris, lead project planner Bill Dennis and specialist Susan Henderson, all impressed with the degree of unanimity among its local participants. Since the developer wanted to leave as much land untouched as possible, its topography dictated the street layout -- spokes radiating from the tract's highest point and making it easy for future residents to gather at a community center proposed for his former residence.
Other gathering points, the writer notes, include a commercial farmstead-type town center, a building with meeting rooms, game rooms and classrooms, an amphitheater, a wine cellar, a fountain, a gazebo, a swimming pool, a croquet lawn, a hedge maze, a pear orchard, wildflower meadows, and, especially for children, sledding slopes, a ''scary-to-navigate'' footbridge over a shallow creek section, an ice-skating pond and ''rambles'' or natural play areas throughout.
''A good way to judge any New Urbanism project is, what is life like for a child,'' pointed out planner Dennis, with the developer confident the neighborhood will also pass ''the Popsicle'' and affordability tests. Under New Urbanism, he explained, an 8-year old can walk to get a Popsicle without crossing busy streets, while affordability means ''what a teacher can afford.''
In contrast to the area's typical 160-acre subdivision, with about 350 lots, he envisions some 440 irregular lots, close to the curb, and 1,000 residences -- luxury single-family homes, six-plexes, live-work row houses, and a number of ''granny flats.''
Hoping for city approvals by next June, he would like to start construction by mid-2008. ''Some people want the three-car garage facing the street and a fenced backyard,'' he observed. ''But 15 to 30 percent are definitely customers for projects like this, and I think that will grow as gas prices remain higher.'' More details at his web site: www.whatsnewonstatestreet.com. -- Omaha World-Herald 9/10/2006
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