Gretna still sits a ways off on the horizon from the Chalco housing area.
But the Sarpy County town is weighing a decision that could forever connect the two booming areas.
To handle its own growth, Gretna opened a sewer line two years ago that tied into Omaha's system. The town allowed a string of other developments to tie into that line.
The sewer line sparked a Chalco development boom - a boom so big that Gretna is shutting it off at least temporarily, effectively putting a moratorium on new subdivisions in the loosely defined Chalco area in northwest Sarpy County.
At the same time, Gretna is looking at bolstering its sewer line.
If the town moves forward and the City of Omaha approves, new expanses of farmland could be opened to development, affecting the area's schools, traffic and taxes.
"It's a problem that cries for resolution and cooperation," said John Green, the Gretna city attorney.
In recent years, the growing Gretna has become a major development player in the southwest part of the metropolitan area.
With more housing coming to town and its old sewage treatment plant tapped out, Gretna turned to the City of Omaha and to Sarpy County for help. It built a line through unincorporated Sarpy County to tie into Omaha's system.
With capacity to serve about 32,000 new residents, the sewer line opened up a square mile of Douglas County, land around Gretna and a wide section of Chalco to housing.
To control the growth, Omaha limited how many acres could become housing. Gretna let Chalco take some of that land, hoping residents paying sewer hookup fees would help fund construction.
Chalco was a popular area before, home to some 12,000 people. But the development has reached a new level since the line opened in 2002.
Plans are in place to carry housing west along Harrison Street to near 204th Street and south along 168th Street past Highway 370. Chalco has more than surpassed the housing acres it had reserved.
"It's been rapid, sometimes uncontrolled," said Jim Olmstead, an engineer who has worked on the issue for Gretna. "But certainly it's gone faster than any of the original three entities anticipated."
While the sewer line has been a boon for Chalco, Gretna needs it, too. Earlier this summer, the city placed a moratorium on Chalco hookups, instead reserving space for Gretna's own growth.
Any development already approved has space reserved in the sewer system. Although Gretna is still deciding how to proceed, Mayor Jim Warren said the city will continue to talk with developers.
"Our phone lines are open," he said.
Gretna, Sarpy County and Omaha are starting to discuss the issue, and engineers for Gretna are designing a new line that, at a cost of more than $2 million, could boost the system.
With Omaha controlling access, Gretna is looking for its neighbor's approval first.
Steve Jensen, Omaha's assistant planning director, said the growth spurred by the line is what Omaha was hoping for. If the growth is to continue, he said, Omaha would favor controls to keep development from leapfrogging too far out.
"It sounds like it's working OK," Jensen said.
If Omaha signs off, Gretna has an important decision to make.
Adding sewer capacity could speed up expansion of the suburban Omaha fringe toward Gretna. But Gretna also wants to ensure that there will be enough development so its residents don't get stuck with a construction bill.
Warren said development in Chalco is good for Gretna because it takes growth pressure off the town.
City Council President Sally McGuire said she favors building the line but thinks Gretna deserves more voice in how Chalco grows.
"We have to study all of those things," she said, "and make sure it's the right thing to do."
There was an earlier discussion about LaVista's growth to the west, and if I had more patience I would search for it. The skinny was that LaVista was expected to annex areas west of their current limits up Giles Rd in the next 10yrs or so. This was anticipated to include past 144th street, westward.
I remember seeing several different stories about LaVista and Gretna and who could annex what, but it has been several years ago. If I remember right I think they were fighting over some of the same land.
