UPDATE: Here is our story on Monday’s contentious forum.
LINCOLN – Developers behind a controversial housing development off Wilbur Road plan to meet with residents on Monday evening, June 22, to hear their concerns.
Opposition organizer Andy Brown notes that the proposal for 92 Wilbur Road includes 28 homes and buildings on 4.2 acres of property, seven of them declared low-to-moderate-income units. That 25 percent is the minimum required for a developer to seek leeway from current zoning restrictions in the R40 residential zone, he said.
According to a comprehensive permit application on the Lincoln town website, there would be four single-family detached units (2,000 square feet), 18 duplex/two-families (1,000 square feet), and six single-family attached/townhomes (1,750 square feet).
The property owner is 401 Homebuyers. No company is listed as applicant.
The R40 (residential rural) zoning mandates that each single-family home is built on 40,000 square feet of land.
“This proposal obliterates this rule by roughly 700 percent,” says Brown.
Affordable housing projects are a good thing, he said, but when they cause issues related to traffic, noise, and water resources, as well as concerns about flight plans for North Central Airport, they need to be finely scrutinized for the area in which they’re proposed.
“To those who know the character of this area, Wilbur Road is obviously not the right situation for this project,” he wrote.
He and others are warning about the precedent this project could set for other areas of town if approved.
Town Councilor Pam Azar contends that this proposal to put 28 houses in a place zoned for four homes isn’t legal.
“Stop overdevelopment of our town,” she posted. “Our schools are at capacity, we are running out of water. We know any more drilling will change the groundwater. Do we expect flooded basements again?”
She further described the proposal as a “nightmare scenario.”
Resident and returning Senate District 17 candidate John Barr agreed that the project is “totally inappropriate.”
Monday’s meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus at 171 Jenckes Hill Road. Residents are invited to discuss potential impacts on the neighborhood, ask questions about issues including density, traffic, safety, infrastructure, and FAA concerns.
