Latest news with #LegislativeBill290
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill moves forward, but with resistance, to expand boundaries for North Omaha business park
The boundaries of the Omaha Inland Port Authority. (Courtesy of City of Omaha) LINCOLN — A bill aimed at enlarging the area where a long-awaited North Omaha business park could be developed advanced Tuesday to its final reading in the Nebraska Legislature. However, Legislative Bill 290, introduced by State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, faced continued resistance led by State Sen. Bob Andersen of Sarpy County. McKinney told the lawmaking body that he was asking for flexibility on the boundaries because there are problems with the top two locations identified by the development team awarded the $90 million in state funds to prepare the industrial site. McKinney's bill would drop a requirement that the park be located within two miles of a major airport, instead allowing it to be within the broader boundaries of the Omaha Inland Port Authority. McKinney also chairs the board that oversees the Port Authority. Its jurisdiction, members said, is roughly 3,000 acres, although not all of that is buildable property. A new twist in $90M Omaha airport area business park plan gets mixed reaction The $90 million for a business park was part of the Economic Recovery Act approved by the Legislature in 2022 and updated in 2023. The act, which included other elements, was championed by McKinney and then-Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha. A team led by the nonprofit Omaha Economic Development Corp., Burlington Capital and the Greater Omaha Chamber won the $90 million grant to develop the park. The team plans to use the funds to prepare a shovel-ready site and to market the area to businesses that would build a job-producing industrial hub. The Omaha Inland Port Authority Board was established after the Economic Recovery Act laid out parameters for the business park. The Port Authority Board now has oversight. One of the two sites the OEDC team identified as a priority location for the park has environmental cleanup expenses that could cost $40 million, McKinney has said. The other contains numerous households, some of which have balked at relocation to make way for the park. During debate Tuesday, Andersen noted that he opposed the bill during committee stage and again during legislative debate. Once again, Andersen charged that McKinney was 'unclear' on certain details such as how much of the Economic Recovery Act funds remained unspent. With the budget shortfall facing the state, he said lawmakers should consider stopping the business park plan. The Legislature voted 25-3 to advance the bill. Twenty legislators were present but chose not to vote. One senator was excused. A bill with no emergency clause needs 25 votes to pass with the governor's signature. The bill had passed the first round Feb. 28 with a 31-5 vote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A new twist in $90M Omaha airport area business park plan gets mixed reaction
Shown here is a 160-acre site of a business and industrial park envisioned west of Eppley Airfield and north of Carter Lake. This tract is included within the larger boundaries of Omaha's Inland Port Authority district. The latest twist is a bill that could allow the development team to explore sites beyond an original two-mile distance from the airport, though the project must still be in the port authority boundaries. (Courtesy of Lamp Rynearson) LINCOLN — A bill making its way through the Nebraska Legislature would open the door for yet another alternative site on which to build the long-anticipated North Omaha business park — a project to be funded in part by $90 million from the state. Depending on where one stands, adding a third option to the mix could be a reason to celebrate or grouse. One neighborhood leader called the evolving circumstances confusing. Another resident said she remains on edge. Indeed, the business park venture — intended to provide new industry and jobs for one of the most historically disinvested areas of Nebraska — has evolved and stirred intense emotion since a preferred site became public in late 2023. The $90 million to create a shovel-ready site was the largest single project funded from roughly $400 million appropriated by the Legislature for North and South Omaha recovery initiatives following the COVID-19 pandemic. Many residents bristled early on at learning their homes stood in the way of the priority location for the business park, identified as about 160 acres west of Omaha's Eppley Airfield and north of Carter Lake. Some have raised concerns since about possibly being ousted from a neighborhood where their families have lived in for generations, though officials insist that eminent domain would not be used to force sales of property. The team awarded the state contract also named a second potential site. But because environmental cleanup at that smaller site west of Carter Lake has been projected to cost as much as $40 million, development there appears cost prohibitive, said State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, a key supporter of the funding. Those barriers led McKinney to introduce this year's Legislative Bill 290, which would drop a previous statutory requirement that the business park be located within two miles of a major airport. If passed, the development team then could consider a wider area, as long as the project remains within the boundaries of Omaha's Inland Port Authority. The Inland Port Authority, under previously adopted law, has oversight over the business park. As currently shaped, the port authority covers as much as nearly 3,000 acres, though some of that area is parkland and other unbuildable property, said Davielle Phillips of the Port Authority board's real estate committee. LB 290 has cleared a few early hurdles, though it has met resistance from a few state lawmakers who have questioned the $90 million allocation in the first place, despite that funds for the project were approved previously by the Legislature and Gov. Jim Pillen. Pillen, in January 2024, formally awarded the contract to develop a shovel-ready site for a business park to a team led by the Omaha Economic Development Corporation, Burlington Capital and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. During legislative debate last week on LB 290, freshman State Sen. Bob Andersen of western Sarpy County quizzed McKinney in an exchange that at times grew testy. 'In the current fiscal environment we're in, where we're $200 million to $400 million in the hole … is this still a verified and validated need?' State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte chimed in: 'I have to ask the question: How much is enough money to be spent on North Omaha? When have we done enough?' Omaha State Sen. Christy Armendariz, who grew up in North Omaha, noted that Pillen has targeted millions of previously approved dollars for other programs to be clawed back or shifted to help address a state budget shortfall. But, she said, the business park fund was not one of them. She supports LB 290 and suggested giving 'a little grace' in allowing the plan to take root. State. Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha added that the funds would help address past disinvestment and social stresses exacerbated by the pandemic. She said the 'potential it unlocks' should not only benefit North Omaha, but the state, too. McKinney, who over the past years has helped lead efforts to steer millions in pandemic-related and other funds to the district, said that although a site has yet to be finalized, pre-development steps were in motion. He said the new legislation 'simply allows more flexibility' to the development team, given obstacles that have surfaced with the two priority sites identified in a 2023 business park preliminary master plan. Those sites are still in play, said McKinney, who also serves on the Port Authority board. Burlington's George Achola offered an update Thursday on the business park plan during the Port Authority's monthly meeting. He said a relocation expert has met with multiple homeowners in the priority site area and is set to meet with others to gauge their willingness to sell. Many property owners have indicated that they would voluntarily move to make way for the project if the price was right, he said. A brief discussion during the meeting about LB 290 prompted questions from North Omaha activist Cheryl Weston. 'What is it? What is the plan for the business park?' she asked. 'Why can't it be clear?' A different neighborhood leader who in the past has balked at relocating told the Nebraska Examiner that he was more frustrated than relieved to learn that another potential site could be added to the mix. 'Confusing, especially at this point in the process,' said Joe Fox Jr., president of the East Omaha Neighborhood Association. 'It's been 400-plus days since our lives were turned upside down, and now we're starting over?' Lori Johnson, who has lived all her life in the neighborhood, said she and her husband would prefer to stay put because four of their children also live nearby with their families, and they've built a community. Homes, urban farm stand at site of proposed Omaha business park buoyed by $90M in state funds However, Johnson is concerned that prolonged uncertainty over the business park project has led both the City of Omaha and others to neglect the area. 'If they gave me what I have here somewhere else, I'd be fine with it,' she said. 'I just think they're going to come after us one way or another.' Thomas Warren, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert's chief of staff who is on the Port Authority board, acknowledged the twists and turns with the business park project. 'Obviously it has evolved,' he said Thursday. Warren reiterated that the City of Omaha has no intention to exercise its power of eminent domain and that any relocation of homeowners would be voluntary. He said the board is supportive of LB 290 and the flexibility it would offer. Michael Maroney, OEDC executive director, has said an ongoing yearlong pre-development research phase will assess whether his team can assemble a big enough swath of land to pull off the project on the preferred site. If not enough owners want to sell, the new alternative site could come into play. Joe Higgins, president of the Levi Carter Sherman Neighborhood Association, said the potential for another alternative site would elicit varied neighborhood responses. He said residents in the priority site who are eager to relocate, given a fair price for their property, probably would be bummed. Others who want to stay put likely would be glad, he said. Personally, Higgins said, he believes an opportunity for improvements in the Carter Lake area would be missed, as an alternative site likely would move the business park westward. 'Is it good for the neighborhood? No, because we'd get zero improvements,' he said. 'This is a marginalized neighborhood. … If they remove the project there's no street, sewer upgrades. We don't even have high-speed internet.' Timeline, business park: Early 2022: State Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney of Omaha seek $450 million in pandemic funds to help North and South Omaha recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic. The business park was a key piece. June 2023: The Legislature adopts updated plan governing delivery of millions in grant money approved the year before. When fully implemented, officials said roughly $400 million will have been invested into North and South Omaha as a result of two years of work. December, 2023: A master plan by Omaha Economic Development Corp-led team obtained by the Nebraska Examiner identifies two possible sites for the business park. December 2023: Wayne sends email to some lawmakers criticizing that the OEDC plan would spend nearly $90 million in state funds to create shovel-ready land for the business park. 'That's insane,' he said of the estimated cost that didn't include structures. January 2024: Property owners on or near the priority site start voicing concerns. April 2024: A new law, pushed by Wayne and McKinney, gives oversight of the business park to the newly formed Omaha Inland Port Authority, McKinney later is named board chair. 2025: McKinney proposes LB 290 to drop the restriction that the business park be within two miles of the airport, as long as the site remains within Port Authority boundaries. 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