DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, September 26, 2005 7:00 pm
The City Council agreed Monday that the west entrance to Lincoln from O Street is “blighted and substandard” and that the city should do something about it.
And in saying so, the city can now proceed with plans to redevelop the 1,361 acres.
The city will help developers revitalize the area with financing tools such as tax increment financing. Tax increment financing is used to encourage development by using the difference between the old and new taxable value of the property to pay off bonds, which are sold to finance public improvements.
The city hopes to reduce the number of dead ends and looped roads, add sidewalks, reduce billboards and signs and improve water and sewer lines.
This blight designation was unusual for Lincoln because it included undeveloped areas.
Lincoln Poultry hopes to use tax increment financing to build a new headquarters near Northwest 56th and West O streets. East of there, Nebraska Machinery hopes to get public improvements near the truck shop it’s building.