Third open house held for Downtown Master Plan

Dozens turned out for the third and final major open house on the Downtown Lincoln Master Plan Tuesday night, hosted by the city and Denver–based consulting firm PUMA.

Building on input from the public at two open houses and surveys this past spring, they’ve narrowed it down to five big projects, which they shared at Tuesday’s open house.

“This plan focuses a lot on making downtown an urban neighborhood,” said Paul Barnes of the City/County Planning Department.  “These really frame the content of that plan and are going to direct us — in terms of development and investment — over the next 10 to 12 years.”

Under what’s been put together so far, projects would include enhancing the downtown O St. corridor,  programming a music district in the area of 14th and O streets and building two green ways on 11th and M streets.

“I love the fact that they’re talking about green spaces and green corridors…and I would love to see a much greener downtown Lincoln,” said Pete Smith of Lincoln.  “We’ve got a lot of hard scape, we have precious few areas for residents with pets to use.”

The last time the Downtown Lincoln Master Plan was updated was 2005.  That paved the way for Pinnacle Bank Arena, the Railyard and upgrading P St.

“It almost seems that they’re not just creating a place to work or an environment to eat and drink,” said  Ryan Schumacher of Lincoln.  “They’re trying to create a place where people can live and develop.”

“As someone that works downtown and uses a lot of the downtown venues…it’s really interesting as both a citizen and as a user of that space as to what cities are doing to improve them,” Smith said.

Nothing is set in stone yet and they’re still asking the public to weigh in.

Barnes said next they will begin working on a full draft of the master plan, which they aim to have done by mid–November.

You can share you thoughts on the Downtown Master Plan by visiting: https://lincoln.ne.gov/city/plan/long/downtown/subcomment.htm