Hoppe Development wants to build Center Terrace — a five-story mixed-use building on the 1.14-acre site that would include up to 125 apartments and 9,200 square feet of commercial space, 6,500 square feet of which would house Clinic With a Heart, which offers free health care services to low-income residents.
The developers have worked closely with Neighborworks and the South of Downtown Community Development Organization, which is selling the land to them. A Centerpointe outpatient clinic on the southeast corner of the site will be demolished as part of the development.
Lack of green space leads to denial
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission last week denied a request for a special permit that would make it easier for Aaron Burd to develop eight town homes on land near 26th and U streets.
However, the group that got approval for the community unit plan, which they used to develop a community garden, objected to adding Burd’s project, mainly because it has no green space in it.
Tim Rinne, who developed the garden with Kay Walters and the Neighborworks organization, said he would support adding Burd’s project to the CUP (See-You-Pee) if Burd would build only seven town homes and dedicate the eighth lot to green space, something an attorney for Burd said is not financially feasible.
Said Rinne, “Anything less, I think, is a perversion of our intent and un-neighborly.”
