A prominent Lincoln human resources consulting company located on a bluff overlooking Holmes Golf Course wants to build another building and eventually double its local work force of 135.

To do so, Talent Plus wants to buy a 1.3-acre triangle of city-owned parkland bordering Holmes Golf Course and convert it into a parking lot.

It wouldn’t exactly be paving paradise, since the parkland near 67th Street and Pioneers Boulevard is now primarily occupied by dandelions. But neighbors in the area signed petitions and lobbied against the proposal, saying the existing Talent Plus building – a contemporary white building with unusual angles and lots of windows – is an eyesore that has ruined their view and made life less idyllic.

The company wants to build another two-story building of up to 60,000 square feet to the southwest of its main three-story building.

The Lincoln City Council held a public hearing Monday on the proposed sale, a zoning change and use permit. The council will vote at its next Monday meeting.

Talent Plus bought private land and 2.3 acres from the city for its corporate headquarters in 2001. It considered buying the remaining 1.3-acre triangle at the time, but instead secured the first right to buy the remaining land if the city received an offer from someone else. At the time, the city was considering building a fire station there.

And while neighbors lobbied against any additional encroachment on the park and their view, they seemed resigned to defeat and also asked that Talent Plus be required to plant large trees to soften the starkness of the white building.

Indeed, Talent Plus director Sandy Maxwell said the company has room to expand without the city land but would be squeezed into a taller building to make room for parking.

Parks Director Lynn Johnson said while the sale of parkland is taken very seriously, the area is already blessed with plenty of parkland, including more than 500 acres to the north.

Federal law requires that if the land is sold, the city use the proceeds of the sale – which Johnson estimated at more than $300,000 – to buy replacement parkland of equal value. The $635,000 Talent Plus paid for its first city parcel was used to buy 47 acres of park land, Johnson said.

Maxwell said the expansion would put more property on the tax rolls, help the company create about 100 more jobs and provide money from “unusable park land” to buy genuine park land. She said the average Talent Plus employee earns about $50,000 annually.

“This is indeed good news for Lincoln,” said attorney Mark Hunzeker, representing Talent Plus.

Neighbor Neal Stenberg said while he understands the need for economic development, he believes it’s wrong to sell public property for a private development, especially since the area could well be Lincoln’s center in 50 to 100 years.

But he also said, “I understand that the promise of economic development has a powerful allure; that it may not be possible to stop this project.”

In that case, he suggested leasing the land instead.

Neighbor Dave Fitzgibbon, who lives west of Talent Plus in the Interlochen neighborhood, said the sale of even “little corners” of parkland shouldn’t be taken lightly, and said he feared banks and fast food restaurants and strip malls would be the next tenants on parkland.

Sensing he was facing an uphill battle, he suggested the city impose landscaping requirements, such as 10 to 15-foot trees. He and another neighbor, Alan Domina, weren’t convinced Talent Plus would act in the interest of neighbors. Domina accused Talent Plus of failing to live up to a promise to make its first building blend in with the neighborhood, calling the building an eyesore.

“The building that they built would maybe blend in to Miami Beach, but it doesn’t blend in here,” he said. Council members suggested Talent Plus talk to neighbors about landscaping before the council takes action on the proposal next week.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.