Plans for a new College of Engineering building at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will likely lead to a complete closure of 17th Street through campus.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the potential vacation of 17th Street from Vine north to X Street.
In September, UNL announced plans for a new $85 million building as part of the College of Engineering Complex north of Vine Street.
University officials hope Kiewit Hall, as the new building will be called thanks to a $20 million donation from Kiewit Corp., will help transform the College of Engineering and also help boost undergraduate enrollment from about 3,200 students to 5,000 over the next decade.
As part of the plan for the new building, UNL wants to build a student plaza to the north of it, as well as a green space area between the College of Engineering buildings and the Abel-Sandoz residence halls.
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John Jensen, manager of university real estate, said the university owns all the buildings that line the street, and the vacation would support its vision for development there.
The new Kiewit Hall isn't the only planned improvement along 17th Street. Work has already started on tearing down the Link, a 37,000-square-foot facility opened in 1984. It will be replaced with a new 91,000-square-foot space. The buildings connected by the Link will also undergo renovations.
It's all part of more than $150 million that UNL has committed to improving and expanding its College of Engineering facilities.
The City Council must still approve the street vacation and sale of the street to the university.
In March of last year, the council approved vacating 17th Street from Vine south to within 300 feet of R Street after the demolition of the Cather and Pound residence halls. If the current vacation proposal is approved, it will mean 17th Street will effectively be closed to vehicle traffic through nearly the entire UNL campus, a goal that has been part of city and university planning documents for two decades.