Southwest Village is turning into quite the mega-development. Planned for the area around U.S. 77 and West Denton Road, the 1.3 million square feet project is even bigger than Gateway's 1 million square feet. The area is marked for development as a "community center" which, according to the Comprehensive Plan (PDF), "may vary in size from 300,000 to nearly a million square feet of commercial space. Typically, new Community Centers will range from 300,000 to 500,000 square feet."
In the case of the proposed Wal-Mart on North 84th Street Mayor Colleen Seng opposed the megastore precisely because it was "too big" for the area's land use designation, even though the project as a whole met the guidelines for the area. (In that case the development was a "neighborhood center".) Will she oppose this development as a whole because it is 30% larger than the Comprehensive Plan's stated limitation for the size of a "community center", and over 150% larger than the "typical" size of a "community center"? If she doesn't, expect an outcry over her inconsistency. If she does, expect an outcry over her blocking a huge economic investment in Lincoln. Frankly, I think the criticism is fair either way. But in this case I'm hoping for a little inconsistency from the Mayor; losing this project would be a tremendous blow to Lincoln's economic development efforts.
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