Wednesday, december 10, 1975
daily nebraskan
page 7
evelopment adds to 'active downtown'
By Ron Ruggless
While downtowns in cities across the nation are dying or
choking their last breath, Lincoln is attempting to save its
downtown from the fatal disease of disintegration.
Through a Lincoln Center Development Program in
stituted by the Mayor-appointed and city council approved
Downtown Advisory Council and the Lincoln Center Devel
opment Association (LCDA), plans to protect downtown
Lincoln's future have been outlined.
Lansford Jorgenson, LCDA executive director, said pro
jects to remodel downtown have started and a major push
should begin in the spring.
Temporary parking will be available in the spring when
some of the buildings on the block bounded by 10th, 1 1th,
N and O streets are demolished, he said, to make way for
the shopping-retail center called the Centrum.
About 85 per cent of the buildings on the south half of
the block and around 50 per cent of those on the north half
have been purchased by the city, according to Charles
Humble, city attorney and acting Centrum project director.
Lawsuits filed
Three condensed lawsuits by businesses on the block
have been filed, Humble added, and construction on the
Centrum must wait until the court decided.
He said this is the first case of its kind in Nebraska. He is
uncertain when the lawsuits will be tired.
If the court cases are cleared, plans indicate that the
Centrum will include five levels of parking on the south half
of the block, making space for about 1,000 cars, and on the
upper three levels of the north half.
The lower two levels on the north, facing O Street,
would be left for private development and city approved
investment, Humble said.
These two levels of the $7.8 million Centrum will house
retail and business outlets. Trees, greenery and beautifica
tion of this area will blend with the planned O Street re
modeling. Signatures have been obtained from more than 51 per
cent of the businesses in the Lincoln Center, which faces O
Street, for a repavement and beautification district to be .
started in early spring, said Sam Marchess, O Street Task
Force chairman and manager of Brandeis. .
Wider Sidewalks
"We plan to do ordinary repaying of the street," he said,
"and also plan to put in new, wider sidewalks, trees, shrub
bery and proper signing."
Nodes (10-foot extensions of the sidewalk at crosswalks)
eventually will be added, he said.
Fifty-one per cent of the downtown businessmen's signa
tures must be collected and verified by the city attorney be
fore work on development plans can be started as required
by state and city laws, he said.
"There was quite a bit of opposition, because the pro
perty owners feel they pay taxes like everybody else does,"
Marchese added. "Gasoline tax money and things of this
matter are earmarked to repave streets.
"But the property owners also realize the downtown
needs this change badly," he said.
Bob Magee, LCDA president and owner of Magee's,
agreed with Marchese.
Heavy tax burden
''Although we (the downtown merchants) know it is a
small portion of the total area of Lincoln, the businesses
here pay over 10 per cent of the taxes for all of the city,"
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A proposed view of the Centrum redevelopment plan for downtown Lincoln.
he said. "Yet they are nowhere near a tenth of the total
area of the city.
"If we allow it to deteriorate, like it has happened in so
many cities," Magee added, "your tax base goes down and
that means that people who are home-owners have to pay
that much more tax to support the city."
The Lincoln Center project is "necessary and exciting"
in terms of what it means to the preservation of downtown
shopping and business, he said.
He cited the J Street task force as an example.
"The J Street task force is composed of many property
owners on J Street, who figure if they have an interest in
keeping the value of their property high, they should have
an interest in making sure the street is a beautiful and
strong connection between the Capitol and the City-County
Building," Magee said. .
Spring completion .
The basic construction and recurbing of J Street is com
pleted, he said, and the addition of ornamental lighting and
landscaping in late spring will finish the project.
Street improvements also are being made on 13th Street
between P and R streets, where curbing is nearly finished,
Jorgenson said. Plantings and lighting will be added in the
spring.
The purpose of the 13th Street project is to provide a tie
between UNL s City Campus and tne Lincoln center.
Magee said the University is a close and captive business
target and downtown merchants depend on the 22,000 stu
dents to help the downtown thrive.
Many universities built away from the downtown areas
tend to draw the businesses toward them, he said, helping
to cause downtowns to die.
The Atrium renovation will take place in the current National Bank of Commerce buiMlng.
UNL has given its endorsement to a project that will re
juvenate the Q Street area, said Deon Bahr, head of trie Q
Place task force and an architect with offices on Q street.
"Our district includes 16 square blocks of property be
tween R and P streets," he said, "and a large portion of that
is owned by the University."
The university cannot sign a petition to make an invest
ment district without Legislature approval. Getting 51 per
cent of the land owners to sign the petition is difficult, he
said.
The university has drafted a letter endorsing the project,
Bahr added. He said he hopes the mayor and city council
will consider it in an approval of the project if he is not able
to obtain the required signatures.
Crosswalks shorter
Plans for the Q Place project include repaying the
streets, beautification with trees and planters, ornamental
lighting and nodes at the intersections to reduce the cross
walk distance.
"We hope to use brick or gravel for the sidewalks instead
of the conventional concrete in an effort to make the area
more pedestrian oriented," he said.
The required signatures hopefully will be obtained by
mid-spring so the project can begin sometime next year, he
added.
Also planned for next year is the demolition of some
buildings in the Haymarket Square area on the northwest
edge of downtown to make way for parking and eventual
buildings and landscaping.
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block bounded by 9th, 10th, Q and R streets and the area
between the Interstate 80 ramps to the north, is a key en
trance way to downtown Lincoln and should make a
prominent impression.
Temporary parking
A distinctive view is desired, Jorgenson said, so the city
will have to approve the type of retail or business develop
ment for the site.
Until a business is selected, it will serve as a parking area.
But the plan has been disputed because Lincoln has parking
area guidelines requiring them-to be cemented or paved.
Plans are not completed regarding the Haymarket
Square's immediate use, the Downtown Advisory Com
mittee's office said.
The Lincoln Center Development Plan, drawn up in
1974 by Barton-Aschman Associates, Inc., of Evanston, IU.,
is divided into three time sequences or phases.
The first, with most of the projects now started, extends
until 1979, the second from 1980 and 1984 end the third
from 1935 on.
According to Marchese, the third phase would remove all
traffic from downtown O Street, making it an entirely ped
estrian mall. Traffic would be routed around the district
with north and south streets remaining open, he added.
Much dispute exists on the feasibility of the change,
Marchese said, because it would remove trsffice from the
middle of the Lincoln Center.
Cont. on pg. 10
