When they look into their crystal balls at a future South Haymarket, city planners see what was once an industrial area of Lincoln transformed over the next 25 years into a place where people live and work.
Proposed design standards, that require buildings to have windows looking into the street area and prettier sidewalk areas with street trees, will help guide that transition.
The Lincoln City Council is expected to approve those design standards at a meeting on Monday at 3 p.m., after hearing no complaints during a public hearing last week.
The standards -- which have already been presented to downtown and south Haymarket interest groups and property owners -- are similar to Lincoln’s current downtown design standards, but with more flexibility for the new apartment and condo buildings expected to be built in this area, said Stacey Hageman, a city planner who has worked on the standards.Ìý
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Those standards will apply to a portion of the South Haymarket, south of O Street for about four blocks.
Like downtown, this area will have no requirements that property owners provide a specific number of parking spaces, as in other parts of the city. So the city expects to build a parking garage in the area at some point in the future, said David Cary, planning director, told the council during the public hearing.
Not requiring property owners to provide parking creates a future unfunded liability for the city, Councilman Jon Camp noted during the public hearing discussion.
The city doesn’t require parking in the downtown and nearby areas as a way to create a built-in incentive for development in that area, said Cary.
All buildings downtown are expected to be built up to the property line. Residential buildings in South Haymarket will be set back up to 10 feet.
There are also streetscape standards for this area, and a requirement that street trees be a part of the landscaping.
Existing landscaping along the street/sidewalk area is not well organized, said Hageman.
“We want to think about a neighborhood where people are living and walking around," she said.
The South Haymarket standards allow more façade building material choices than downtown, but will prohibit using faux brick or stucco on the first floor.
The focus of the standards is on the first floor so there is something interesting to look at as people are walking, Hageman said. That includes a higher quality building material and windows.
The South Haymarket zoning is not changing. Zone changes and the design standards will come into play only when there is a major remodeling or a new building, Hageman said.