LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

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RockHarbor
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LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

Post by RockHarbor »

I didn't want to start a new post for this, but I don't know where to really fit it...

I occasionally check on Lincoln's suburban growth on Google Maps, as I know the city is considerably growing. As the city expands to the East and Southwest, development is not only erasing farm & farmland, it is having to make its way around acreage neighborhoods that were plotted in the country many years before -- neighborhoods which are not going anywhere (usually). We see this in Omaha near 180th & 'Q', where subdivisions w/ the usual curvy streets & circles and postage stamp lots were built around the older simple roads & acreages & spacious plots of "Plantation."

The question I have, though, are about these new subdivisions in suburban Lincoln. Why are the streets designed w/ hook-ups, when they face not a farm & field (which are commonly erased), but they face acreages (which aren't commonly erased)? Anybody know? Thanks...
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GetUrban
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Re: LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

Post by GetUrban »

That's an interesting juxtaposition. My guess it is nearly impossible to get several different acreage owners to sell their property to make way for a subdivision, compared to large blocks of farmland which are easy to convert. The subdivision designers have their own ideas about how to layout neighborhoods for efficiency, cutting costs, and maximizing profits. They aren't about to align their streets with the adjacent less dense acreage streets. And the last thing acreage owners want is to have their acreage streets connected with denser neighborhoods with all of the traffic. The same thing is happening north of Omaha before you get to Ft. Calhoun. Lots of acreages up there, but most of the subdivision growth is going farther west & northwest of I-680 & Hwy 133. The area east of 96th street is likely to stay acreages. But there are a few subdivisions like Lake Cunningham Hills. Northern Hills Estates by the North Omaha Airport is another one, but the lots are all more than an acre each.

It is strange how they design the subdivision street with the stubs for future connections which may never happen. That probably makes the acreage owners a bit uneasy. I suppose in the long term, the larger acreages will get absorbed by the subdivisions.
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RockHarbor
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Re: LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

Post by RockHarbor »

Thanks for your reply. It is a bit strange, isn't it?

A couple of things I thought of after I started this was:

1) You get more houses and more lots with that configuration, rather than rounding those corners off.
2) Maybe I shouldn't assume all flat-out "dead end" streets are necessarily meant to be future hooks-up. However, they aren't sightly -- like a circle. And, I don't think people like them as well as a cul-de-sac.

Occasionally, in Omaha you can find "dead end" streets (in 80's subdivisions for example) that never connected to a neighborhood that later was put-in adjacent to it -- where you would have thought they would have connected it. I don't think it looks very good, though. Usually, they do connect street hook-ups.

Yeah, to sale a big plot of farmland where a farmer lives in a little house in the center of it is one thing. To get 20 people to agree to sale their home on a multiple-acre lot is another. It is difficult to see acreage neighborhoods ever going away...imo.

BTW, my childhood was spent in a subdivision in Millard, but my adolescent years were spent on an acreage near north 72nd, up near Fort Calhoun. 72nd Street really is kind of a geographical line between easy-to-develop farmland, and those really hilly, woodsy, leafy areas of Ponca Hills. It's funny you mention all that... (In fact, I went to Fort Calhoun schools, and we hardly ever beat anybody in football, as we played other small "Class C" towns further out, which had more strong "farm boys." We were more "small town & acreage boys", imo. lol)
I can get pushed out because I'm "too much" for some. Then, an observer of me comes suddenly swooping in to "fill my shoes." People are always more accepting of the new one, because their feathers aren't truly ruffled by them. (Yawn) I can count on it every time.
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Re: LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

I've noticed on some cities they'll connect new subdivision streets with stubs of older subdivisions and then put a barricade at the connection because, presumably, the neighbors in the old subdivision complained too much. Luckily I think there's an ordinance in Omaha to prevent that sort of thing.
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RockHarbor
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Re: LINCOLN SUBURBAN PATTERNS. Questions...

Post by RockHarbor »

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:I've noticed on some cities they'll connect new subdivision streets with stubs of older subdivisions and then put a barricade at the connection because, presumably, the neighbors in the old subdivision complained too much. Luckily I think there's an ordinance in Omaha to prevent that sort of thing.
Really?! I've never seen that before. It seems silly to me... Not only does it give a "bad vibe", I think: What is the point of connecting streets when you're going to put a barricade there anyways? I guess it does look more aesthetic to connect streets, though.

And, this, too: If the new connection suddenly creates this newly-discovered & busy short-cut, where a lot of traffic is now on a once normally quiet street, I can see why people get upset. But, we've been to the moon and back. We should be able to figure these things out before they happen, imo.
I can get pushed out because I'm "too much" for some. Then, an observer of me comes suddenly swooping in to "fill my shoes." People are always more accepting of the new one, because their feathers aren't truly ruffled by them. (Yawn) I can count on it every time.
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