Cindy Gonzalez - World-Herald staff writer wrote:Moulton said the Center Street initiative would be the first in which the city, in partnership with Omaha By Design, fully implements its Neighborhood Conservation/Enhancement District strategy intended to help re-energize neighborhood commercial hubs that evolved along historic streetcar lines.
“We’re trying to set up a model to replicate,” Moulton said of the Center Street project, which also involves neighborhood associations. Omaha By Design is a nonprofit entity dedicated to improving the physical design of the city.
Related city boosts could come in the form of changes to zoning, traffic patterns, streetscapes and developer incentives. City planners also encourage the creation of business improvement districts, such as one formed by Blackstone merchants at the launch of that revival, that assess a tax on property owners to fund efforts. (Since GreenSlate about three years ago opened a renovated a cluster of Blackstone bays at 42nd and Farnam Streets, the ripple has continued up, down and around the Farnam corridor.)
There's a really good map in the report which shows population density. It does not however include the new "Wire" apartment building or UNO/Creighton student populations. It'll be interesting to see the density increase given the multitude of infill projects in progress.
The 2014 NCE document really is fantastic, and seems to have predicted the last two years of developments well. I'm going to read over it more before posting my thoughts, I encourage others to do the same.