It's rare that residents who have been living next to a vacant lot for 20 years fully support plans to develop that lot.
But the 14 homeowners on Black Forest Drive, near 62nd Street and Old Cheney Road, said they were perfectly fine with plans for a doctor's office and more houses to the north and west of them.
However, what several of the owners said they did not want to see was a connection from that development to their private street.
The developer was fine with that and sought a waiver from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department, but planning staff denied the request, insisting the connection should be made as part of city policy.
Planning commissioners viewed the situation differently, though. They noted the small number of houses on Black Forest Drive, the fact that it's a private street and the fact that the new development will have two ways for people to exit.
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Commissioner Tom Beckius called elimination of the road connection a "minimal variance," saying the development overall achieves the city's goal of connectivity. He was joined by four of the other five commissioners present in voting to grant the waiver.
Overall, the development proposes roughly 70 new homes and a doctor's office on about 35 acres of land that's east of the Edgewood Shopping Center.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved a special permit for the overall development as well as a zoning change and use permit for about 3.6 acres so that Lincoln Pediatric Group can build an office and clinic of up to 25,000 square feet.
"Having the pediatric office there is an excellent use of the property," said Commissioner Dick Campbell. "I believe this is a very good plan."
Planning Commission Chairwoman Tracy Corr, who voted to approve the zoning change, use permit and special permit, voted against the waiver for the connecting street.
"This is how it was planned," she said. "(The homeowners) should have known this up front, and to ask for this change now, I feel, is not appropriate," she said.
Remembering the original Cornhusker Hotel
Remembering the original Cornhusker Hotel, built 95 years ago
Original Cornhusker Hotel
The corner of 13th and L has been home to The Cornhusker hotel for almost a century. In 1978, the original Cornhusker hotel shown here closed, and four years it was demolished and replaced by the new 10-story, 304-room Cornhusker Hotel.
Journal Star file photo
Cornhusker Hotel
The July 8, 1925, edition of The Lincoln Star announces plans to build the first Cornhusker Hotel at 13th and M streets on its front page. The initial plans called for a 10-story building with 350 rooms to open in August 1926 at a construction cost of $1.45 million. In the center of the page is an artist's rendition of the hotel.
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Cornhusker Hotel
This photo from July 19, 1925, shows the First Presbyterian Church, completed in 1869, after work began a few days earlier on tearing it down to make room for the Cornhusker Hotel. The congregation moved across the alley to occupy the First Congregational Church building, which was vacant after that church united with Plymouth in 1923 to become First-Plymouth Congregational Church.
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Cornhusker Hotel
The tower of First Presbyterian Church falls after the first two of three demolition charges exploded together in this photo from the July 23, 1925, edition of the Lincoln Star. A third charge was late, exploding after the tower had fallen, sending stones south and west from the site. The paper reported windows were broken in nearby buildings by the blasts, some by concussion and some by debris thrown by the third charge.
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Cornhusker Hotel
These images from the Aug. 30, 1925, edition of the Nebraska State Journal show the rendition of the Cornhusker Hotel on the left. Between it and the planned Capital Hotel, shown on the right, Lincoln was adding 550 rooms to its hotel capacity.
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Cornhusker Hotel
This story from the Nebraska State Journal from Dec. 13, 1925, introduces us to Harry L. Weaver of St. Louis, "a practical hotel man with years of experience" who was elected president of the Lancaster Hotel Co. to run the under-construction hotel.
Weaver said at first he "was not interested in towns the size of Lincoln. … But after seeing your hustling city with its busy streets and fine buildings, and meeting a number of your citizens, I changed my mind."
By this time the hotel's frame had been bricked up to the eighth floor on its west and south sides.
Newspapers.com
Cornhusker Hotel
The Sunday State Journal published a special "hotel section" in the July 4, 1926, edition a few days before the hotel's official opening. The section included stories and photos about the hotel's construction, its features and its management. It also had ads from local businesses welcoming the new facility — and, in some cases, celebrating their involvement in its construction.
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Cornhusker Hotel
The Cornhusker opened on July 6, 1926. This story from the next day's Lincoln State Journal says that more than 300 people attended the opening dinner and dance. The menu included Cornhusker canape, fried northern pike fillets and broiled tenderloin steaks.
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Cornhusker Hotel
Among its many features, the Cornhusker Hotel had its own orchestra. This ad from the Lincoln State Journal in December 1926 alerts readers to which days the orchestra would not be playing so it could instead perform Christmas music in Omaha.
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Cornhusker Hotel
This April 25, 1930, Lincoln Star photo shows Charles Schimmel of Omaha (seated), who purchased the Cornhusker Hotel on that date. Schimmel owned the Blackstone hotel in Omaha. Schimmel said at the time the Cornhusker was "the first of a group of large hotels I am planning to either build or purchase for my four sons" standing behind him. On the left is A.Q. Schimmel, who moved to Lincoln to become the Cornhusker's manager. He would lead the hotel for the next 38 years.
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Cornhusker Hotel
The Dec. 24, 1930, Nebraska State Journal had this notice about the first Cornhusker Christmas party for the hotel's 185 employees and guests. The event included performances by employees and professional acts from Kansas City, Omaha and Lincoln. The party would become a tradition during the Schimmel family's ownership.
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Cornhusker Hotel
The Cornhusker Hotel as it appeared in an advertisement for gas-powered air conditioning in the Aug. 17, 1960, edition of the Lincoln Evening Journal and Nebraska State Journal.
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John F. Kennedy in Nebraska
Shaking hands with Sen John F. Kennedy (right) at the Cornhusker Hotel is John Showlater and Mrs. Robert Eikleberry, president of the Lincoln Jane Jefferson club. Both Kennedy and his opponent in the 1960 presidential election, Richard Nixon, both made stops at the Cornhusker in the lead-up to the election, part of a long line of famous politicians, performers and celebrities to visit the hotel.
Journal Star file photo
Cornhusker Hotel
The Lincoln Evening Journal announced the Cornhusker Hotel's sale to Curtis L. Carlson of Minnesota on Oct. 24, 1968. Curtis also purchased two other Schimmel hotels in Omaha and Wichita, Kan. The sale price wasn't announced, but the Cornhusker itself was valued at just over $1 million by the county assessor that year. Carlson's Radisson Management Corp. took over the hotel's operations.
Cornhusker Hotel
In this Lincoln Star story from May 23, 1978, Carlson Properties announced it would close the iconic hotel and try to sell it. Failing that, the company would possibly knock it down. "The structure is old and no longer economical to operate as a hotel," said Ronald Eastman, executive vice president for Carlson. Radisson official Pete Clarke said the hotel had been losing money for two years.
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Cornhusker Hotel
First National Bank announced its purchase of the Cornhusker Hotel for about $1 million from Radisson in the Lincoln Journal on Sept. 21, 1978. The bank, north of the hotel on M Street, found its parking lot — or the site itself — "particularly attractive" for its future space needs, according to President William Smith. The deal included an option for a lease or purchase for the hotel portion that, if it wasn't exercised by Dec. 31, would lead to the hotel being razed.
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Cornhusker Hotel
Investors from Wisconsin and Minnesota announced in June 1979 that they had an option to buy most of the block occupied by the Cornhusker Hotel for a planned $32 million redevelopment project that would include demolishing the old hotel and building a new one. At the bottom is a model of what the planned redevelopment would look like.
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Cornhusker Hotel
Cornhusker Square developer David Murdock and Burnham Yates, then president of First National Bank, talk in this photo from 1968 with the Cornhusker Hotel in the background. The photo ran with a story in the Sunday Journal and Star on Dec. 20, 1981, about the Los Angeles-based Murdock and his ties to Lincoln, including having an apartment in the hotel for several years.
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The Cornhusker implosion
Implosion of the old Cornhusker Hotel, looking northwest, on Feb. 20, 1982.
Journal Star file photo
The Cornhusker implosion
Smoke rises after The Cornhusker Hotel was imploded in 1982.
JOURNAL STAR FILE PHOTO
The Cornhusker implosion
A pile of rubble remains after the The Cornhusker Hotel was imploded Feb. 21, 1982.
JOURNAL STAR FILE PHOTO
The Cornhusker implosion
An implosion brings down The Cornhusker Hotel.
Journal Star file photo
The Cornhusker implosion
The Cornhusker Hotel starts to come down on Feb. 21, 1982.
JOURNAL STAR FILE PHOTO
The Cornhusker implosion
The Cornhusker Hotel starts to collapse after dynamite was set off on Feb. 21, 1982.
JOURNAL STAR FILE PHOTO
The Cornhusker implosion
Smoke and debris billow after The Cornhusker Hotel was imploded in February of 1982.
Journal Star file photo
Cornhusker construction
The new Cornhusker Hotel went up in 1982, its construction representing the first tax-increment financing project in Lincoln history.
Lincoln Journal Star file photo
The Cornhusker hotel
The current Cornhusker, now known as the Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel, as it appeared in 2012.
JOURNAL STAR FILE PHOTO
Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com .
On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.
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