Planning Board approves CRA designation for area around Center Mall after heated public comment

The Omaha Planning Board on Monday recommended that City Council designate a portion of the area around 42nd and Center Street as a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), a step that enables projects there to pursue tax-increment financing.

Don Seten of the City Planning Department presented the staff study, saying two census block groups met statutory criteria for CRA designation (examples cited: population decline between 2010 and 2020, average building age around 74 years and lower per-capita income than the citywide average). "We find that the study area does indeed qualify for CRA designation," Seten said.

Lockwood Development's counsel, John Blumenthal, told the board the firm is under contract for the Center Mall property and is exploring a mixed-use redevelopment that could include multifamily residential and affordable units. He said CRA designation is a preliminary step to evaluate redevelopment feasibility.

More than a dozen tenants, nonprofit leaders and nearby residents testified in opposition or with strong cautions. Speakers including Rebecca Monahan, Elaine Heath and Anna Hunter said the Center Office building (the 'Center Mall') houses roughly 100 active tenants — medical, mental-health and social-service providers, small businesses, churches and nonprofits — and warned that redevelopment with TIF could disrupt centralized services for vulnerable residents. Several urged stronger tenant protections, phased relocation plans or conditions tying any subsidy to protections for existing services.

Planning staff and the applicant said CRA designation does not itself approve a redevelopment plan or TIF — it merely makes projects in that geography eligible to apply for incentives and would require additional public hearings on any concrete redevelopment or TIF request. After debate, the board voted 5–0 to recommend CRA designation; staff requested the community continue engagement as projects advance.

Next steps: the recommendation goes to City Council. Any project using a CRA designation to request TIF would again return for public hearings and evaluations.