Not one neighbor showed up in opposition, and the meeting room seats were mostly empty.  No anti-big-box-store signs were banished from the public hearing, and no thousand-strong petitions were turned in.

It was as if nobody cared that a developer plans to put a Super Target on the northwest corner of 40th Street and Yankee Hill Road in southeast Lincoln. So the City Council went along with the tide, unanimously approving a use permit.

The scene was quite unlike the protracted debate late last year and spilling over into this year over another developer’s attempt to put a Wal-Mart Supercenter near 84th and Adams streets.

After dozens of letters, thousands of signatures on petitions and a heated debate over Wal-Mart’s labor practices, the proposal fizzled when Mayor Coleen Seng threatened to veto the development. She said the proposed 230,000-square-foot Supercenter was too big for the area, which the city’s development guide defines as a “neighborhood center.”

Neighborhood centers typically allow up to 250,000 square feet of commercial space, but that usually means a variety of stores, not one big box. Seng said the developer was shoehorning the Wal-Mart into the area, and after months of negotiations, eventually the two sides agreed to limit the anchor store to 175,000 square feet.

That led some council members to accuse Seng of trying to accommodate a Target, and dissuade a Wal-Mart.

The proposed Super Target is also targeted for a neighborhood center, but it will be 174,000 square feet. However, the land the Super Target will sit on has long been zoned for commercial use and there was little opposition from neighbors.

DaNay Kalkowski, the attorney representing the developer, The DESCO Group, was surprised by the lack of opposition.

“It’s been unique,” she told the council.

Councilwoman Patte Newman —  who voted against allowing even a 175,000-square-foot big box store at 84th and Adams — said she was conflicted about putting a 174,000-square-foot store in a neighborhood center. But because the zoning was already commercial and homeowners knew it,  and because the store is on two major arterial streets, she said she’d “hold my nose and vote for this.”

The shopping center will also include a bank, retail and a couple of restaurants and is expected to create 450 jobs (about a quarter of them full time) and a $4.5 million payroll, according to Kalkowski.

Construction on the Super Target will begin soon, with an opening scheduled for July 2007. Jaci Bell, a Minneapolis-based development manager for Target, said the store hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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