Gretna's Future Population

[HighWinds]

Lately I've been studying Omaha's suburbs, and I realized that Gretna (according to 2022 estimates) has nearly doubled in population since 2020.

On top of this, I feel like every month Gretna is in the news, usually for something new, like the recently opened waterpark.

This got me wondering: Will Gretna one day be a major Omaha suburb? Perhaps similar in size to Bellevue or Council Bluffs in the next couple decades?

What do you think?

[skinzfan23]

Maybe, someday. But they have a very long ways to go. They are around 9,000 while CB is around 62,000 and Bellevue is 65,000. There is still plenty of land out there, but it is going to come down to density and being able to expand the city boundaries. Without that and just adding a bunch of single-family housing units, it won't be able to grow to 60,000.

[Busguy2010]

I see their growth more as Omaha's growth. They benefit from the fact Omaha is balloning enough to engulf them. Yes, technically their land, but I don't believe they'd be growing if it weren't for the Omaha metro expanding their way.

[Nosebot]

I'd say they're well over 9k with how much land hasn't been annexed yet. half the new homes and apartments are still in the melia/richland precincts.

[Garrett]

Depending on future land use patterns, Gretna has the potential to be the largest Omaha suburb. But I’ll also say the census estimates have consistently overestimated the Sarpy County towns, so we’ll see what 2030 brings

[nebugeater]

Gretna may be considered an Omaha burb by some, but there are a LOT of people that work in Lincoln living here

[Louie]

Gretna may be considered an Omaha burb by some, but there are a LOT of people that work in Lincoln living here

Are you suggesting its not a suburb of Omaha?

[nebugeater]

Gretna may be considered an Omaha burb by some, but there are a LOT of people that work in Lincoln living here

Are you suggesting its not a suburb of Omaha?

I really don't care what it is called. It is Gretna Beyond that it is all semantics. I get a kick out of the fact that depending on what category is being discussed, sometimes Gretna and many other areas want to be claimed, and other times, they have nothing to do with the success or failure of the core.

[iamjacobm]

Gretna definitely has a lot of land they get to control, but Papillion still has a lot of undeveloped land to the south too. I could see Gretna's development being relatively less dense than Papillion too (not that Papillion will be dense, but I could see smaller single-family lots and more continues development than Gretna. The swath along the Platte probably going to be lower-intensity suburban development. The link below shows what parts of the county are allocated to which city.

https://nri-mapa.hub.arcgis.com/dataset ... _4/explore

[Louie]

Gretna may be considered an Omaha burb by some, but there are a LOT of people that work in Lincoln living here

Are you suggesting its not a suburb of Omaha?

I really don't care what it is called. It is Gretna Beyond that it is all semantics. I get a kick out of the fact that depending on what category is being discussed, sometimes Gretna and many other areas want to be claimed, and other times, they have nothing to do with the success or failure of the core.

Considering it makes up less than 1% of the metro population, it can't really hold that much sway in either direction.

[nebugeater]

Gretna may be considered an Omaha burb by some, but there are a LOT of people that work in Lincoln living here

Are you suggesting its not a suburb of Omaha?

I really don't care what it is called. It is Gretna Beyond that it is all semantics. I get a kick out of the fact that depending on what category is being discussed, sometimes Gretna and many other areas want to be claimed, and other times, they have nothing to do with the success or failure of the core.

Considering it makes up less than 1% of the metro population, it can't really hold that much sway in either direction.

LOL

I am not the one that makes a big deal out of it. Just started out by pointing out that they live in Gretna, do work in Omaha and Lincoln as well as other places

[Renovator2559]

Too bad Gretna is repeating the same problems of the failed suburban experiment, they are just wasting space with sprawl. Those extra wide arterials are too wide with large buffer zones. I've been to Gretna multiple times, not impressed in how they are creating just another copy, paste stripmall and parking lot galore suburb with no character. Gretna is not a place worth visiting, no matter how the suburb of Gretna wants to brand itself, as a tourist "destination".

[guy4omaha]

Gretna will be just fine … with or without your seal of approval. The urban model you seem to mandate at the exclusion of all others is not for everyone.

[damonhynes]

Gretna will be just fine … with or without your seal of approval. The urban model you seem to mandate at the exclusion of all others is not for everyone.

[ChadJK]

...they are creating just another copy, paste stripmall and parking lot galore suburb with no character.

No Parking + Red Brick + Lead in the Soil = Character

I always find this amusing. Apparently, "character" is street parking 3 blocks away from a retail business and paying a meter for the privilege to do so. The business itself is in a 100+ year old building that's been through a couple of dozen bad renovations. Though, you can shortcut through the alley where liquid nastiness is leaking out of the nearby dumpsters and give money to the guy sleeping next to it. But hey, that's "character." All to be served by whatever ambivalent wannabe-counter-culture 18-25 year old needs money for more tattoos.

Hard pass.

[damonhynes]

...they are creating just another copy, paste stripmall and parking lot galore suburb with no character.

No Parking + Red Brick + Lead in the Soil = Character

I always find this amusing. Apparently, "character" is street parking 3 block away from a retail business and paying for the privilege to do so. The business itself is in a 100+ year old building that's been through a couple of dozen bad renovations. Though, you can shortcut through the alley where liquid nastiness is leaking out of the nearby dumpsters and give money to the guy sleeping next to it. But hey, that's "character." All to be served by whatever ambivalent wannabe-counter-culture 18-25 year old needs money for more for more ink work.

Hard pass.

Couldn't have put it better mice elf.

[Garrett]

...they are creating just another copy, paste stripmall and parking lot galore suburb with no character.

No Parking + Red Brick + Lead in the Soil = Character

I always find this amusing. Apparently, "character" is street parking 3 block away from a retail business and paying for the privilege to do so. The business itself is in a 100+ year old building that's been through a couple of dozen bad renovations. Though, you can shortcut through the alley where liquid nastiness is leaking out of the nearby dumpsters and give money to the guy sleeping next to it. But hey, that's "character." All to be served by whatever ambivalent wannabe-counter-culture 18-25 year old needs money for more for more ink work.

Hard pass.

Not defending anything he’s saying, but you can build new walkable communities, it’s just that zoning laws tend to forbid them. Check out the Grove in Covington, Georgia as a nice example.

[nebugeater]

I will have to check with some of my other Homies in Gretna, but I suspect we will be able to manage without Renovator2559's support.


Things can always be better, different, or whatever you want to call it, but that goes for EVERYWHERE. My vote is Gretna is doing a lot of good things.

[Brad]

Not defending anything he’s saying, but you can build new walkable communities, it’s just that zoning laws tend to forbid them. Check out the Grove in Covington, Georgia as a nice example.

I could list several reasons why that development would not happen in Omaha, but zoning wouldn't be one of them. There are enough special districts and overlay districts where I'm sure you could get it approved.

[Garrett]

Not defending anything he’s saying, but you can build new walkable communities, it’s just that zoning laws tend to forbid them. Check out the Grove in Covington, Georgia as a nice example.

I could list several reasons why that development would not happen in Omaha, but zoning wouldn't be one of them. There are enough special districts and overlay districts where I'm sure you could get it approved.

Omaha’s zoning has certainly gotten better, but does Gretna have similar laws? And part of the issue is that it couldn’t be built as of right, but needs a special district designation or overlays.

Also curious on your perspective on why it wouldn’t happen. Cultural things? Finances?

[Renovator2559]

...they are creating just another copy, paste stripmall and parking lot galore suburb with no character.

No Parking + Red Brick + Lead in the Soil = Character

I always find this amusing. Apparently, "character" is street parking 3 block away from a retail business and paying for the privilege to do so. The business itself is in a 100+ year old building that's been through a couple of dozen bad renovations. Though, you can shortcut through the alley where liquid nastiness is leaking out of the nearby dumpsters and give money to the guy sleeping next to it. But hey, that's "character." All to be served by whatever ambivalent wannabe-counter-culture 18-25 year old needs money for more for more ink work.

Hard pass.

Do all neighborhood in the core look like that? not even close. We have many different and unique districts.
Also isn't it funny how the Old Market you are describing is practically a magnet of tourism and is practically one of Omaha's gems attractions.

I'll take any of the proper, traditional Omaha districts, over the unwalkable copy paste, traffic congested, asphalt jungles of strip mall galore land.

Not defending anything he’s saying, but you can build new walkable communities, it’s just that zoning laws tend to forbid them. Check out the Grove in Covington, Georgia as a nice example.

Gretna will not change their zoning laws to create walkable suburbs, Gretna would be the last place to even think about, but by the time they even think about it, it will be too late. It will be a traffic congested mess and will run out of land.

Grove in Covington, Georgia has been in planning and construction for many years since 2004. There is no road map anywhere in sight that Gretna would do a smart decision like this.

[F0R_L1F3]

https://issuu.com/kmarvin/docs/the_cros ... 2023100609

I was looking into Gretna and noticed this as well as with the city hall design how they have a buffered bike lane. I don't know if this will get anywhere near it but who knows, slim chances.

[Renovator2559]

Thanks for the good find!

Just reading/reviewing the Gretna master plan, shows how wrong I was to even suggest that Gretna would be just another copy and paste suburb or that it's not worth visiting. I apologize for disparaging Gretna.

This Gretna master plan is beautiful, so much vision, very thorough. Based on this vision, Gretna has all the ingredients to become a desirable travel and livable destination.

This shows that Gretna is paying attention to the Omaha trends and want to replicate their successes with Gretna's unique flair.

Greenways, parks, multi-modal network, complete streets, mixed used developments with very little surface parking, trail oriented development, bike shares, electric scooters and medium density developments.

From Masterplan:
"Key Takeaways
• Think big and outside the box
• The significance of some of the proposed projects are huge and would put Gretna on the map and start a snowball effect
• Be picky - hold the line on quality or risk becoming a bunch of disconnected subdivisions and commercial sites only accessible by car from hostile state highways
• With the right plan and patience, Gretna could create a truly walkable semi-urban place that's more than just a regional shopping destination
• Potential to become a new urbanist type community that is a first of its kind in Omaha"

Not only that, this master plan stresses that they want to discourage dependency on auto for short trips, while giving the option of the auto for long trips.

The Gretna masterplan is worth a read, so that you can come up with your own conclusions of the trajectory of Gretna.

[Garrett]

https://issuu.com/kmarvin/docs/the_cros ... 2023100609

I was looking into Gretna and noticed this as well as with the city hall design how they have a buffered bike lane. I don't know if this will get anywhere near it but who knows, slim chances.

Thanks for bringing this up, it’s the first I’ve seen it. It’s quite an impressive plan, and hope it can be implemented for a lot of reasons. It’s encouraging to see a lot of emphasis on bike infrastructure, including Trail Oriented Development which is a pretty new and promising concept in planning. Also nice to see them be excited about a regional transit system with Omaha and Lincoln.

If they manage to properly develop this vision, Gretna could be a national model in urban design.

[nebugeater]

Thanks for the good find!

Just reading/reviewing the Gretna master plan, shows how wrong I was to even suggest that Gretna would be just another copy and paste suburb or that it's not worth visiting. I apologize for disparaging Gretna.

This Gretna master plan is beautiful, so much vision, very thorough. Based on this vision, Gretna has all the ingredients to become a desirable travel and livable destination.

This shows that Gretna is paying attention to the Omaha trends and want to replicate their successes with Gretna's unique flair.

Greenways, parks, multi-modal network, complete streets, mixed used developments with very little surface parking, trail oriented development, bike shares, electric scooters and medium density developments.

From Masterplan:
"Key Takeaways
• Think big and outside the box
• The significance of some of the proposed projects are huge and would put Gretna on the map and start a snowball effect
• Be picky - hold the line on quality or risk becoming a bunch of disconnected subdivisions and commercial sites only accessible by car from hostile state highways
• With the right plan and patience, Gretna could create a truly walkable semi-urban place that's more than just a regional shopping destination
• Potential to become a new urbanist type community that is a first of its kind in Omaha"

Not only that, this master plan stresses that they want to discourage dependency on auto for short trips, while giving the option of the auto for long trips.

The Gretna masterplan is worth a read, so that you can come up with your own conclusions of the trajectory of Gretna.

So I take this as you have changed from "Gretna is not a place worth visiting," to "I'm Moving to Gretna"

[F0R_L1F3]

https://issuu.com/kmarvin/docs/the_cros ... 2023100609

I was looking into Gretna and noticed this as well as with the city hall design how they have a buffered bike lane. I don't know if this will get anywhere near it but who knows, slim chances.

Thanks for bringing this up, it’s the first I’ve seen it. It’s quite an impressive plan, and hope it can be implemented for a lot of reasons. It’s encouraging to see a lot of emphasis on bike infrastructure, including Trail Oriented Development which is a pretty new and promising concept in planning. Also nice to see them be excited about a regional transit system with Omaha and Lincoln.

If they manage to properly develop this vision, Gretna could be a national model in urban design.

I can strongly say that transit is defiantly on the way between Lincoln and Omaha. Will it be any rail right now or for a little bit? Probably not but with how Lincoln's new transit center is being built to have a bay specifically for transit between Lincoln and Omaha said in their plans and when talking to them, I have faith that the future's going somewhere with connecting the two.

And yeah, I think trails will be a good backbone. It might take some time but I feel like a lot of newer communities will trend in this direction. We'll still have a lot of issues with development across the Omaha area but some communities like these in Gretna will be planned hopefully okay. Looking at the area, it seems like there's a lot of distance from amenities and pleasure such as restaurants so maybe this gives it a clean slate. Really hope this plan goes even slightly accordingly because I went to Northfield in Denver and that was a decent suburb that I feel we can at least somewhat ace in terms of placing amenities like these near one another.

[F0R_L1F3]

Also some more digging:

https://www.gretnacompplan.com
https://www.thelakotagroup.com/wp-conte ... hibits.pdf