New Lincoln Arena

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Davis on March 7, 2010 at 3:29pm

Matt, I'm surprised no one has replied yet.

I'm fairly certain I heard plans of building a walkable/bikable environment around the arena for a while there.

I will point some folks on each side of the issue to this question and see if we can get some answers.

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Permalink Reply by Amber Nore on March 13, 2010 at 2:55pm

I am interested in learning more about this, too. I don't really have enough information to decide if I am for or against it.

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Permalink Reply by DannytheK on March 13, 2010 at 4:33pm

Matt,

Thanks for beginning this discussion. This is an important issue that deserves more attention. I'm not sure about the plans for sustainability and LEED cert, but I am sure some serious questions remain regarding the contamination issues with the railroad. I believe we should be pushing for full disclosure as to the extent of the environmental damage there prior to making any deals.

DK

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Permalink Reply by Codah Gatewood on March 15, 2010 at 5:23am

Hey guys, glad you are interested in this type of information, here is what I can tell from preliminary design implementation.

According to the Integrated Development Plan, from what I can see this project will be consistent with the LEED Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) guidelines. This is a commitment to the Mayor Executive Order signed in 2008, which was a green development policy. The LEED-NC is based upon a rating system that is made up of 4 categories: smart location & linkage; neighborhood pattern & design; green construction & tech; innovation & design process.

According to the document, the project could be LEED Silver certified, with the potential for gold and maybe platinum. Although, I do not think it would be officially "certified", it would still be designed and constructed under those same guidelines.

The fact that this project is designed in the Haymarket gives the project most potential for being a walkable neighborhood because the Haymarket is a walkable neighborhood already. If this project was built anywhere else in the city, I could not see the potential for any other area to be as walkable as the Haymarket. This makes the new area around the arena to be more safe for pedestrians. The Haymarket is also near UNL, where students could just walk from their dorms for concerts, BBall games, and other events.

There is also a bike trail planned just west of the new "Arena" drive. This adds to our already great bike trail system.

The most significant environmental aspect to this project is that we are cleaning up a brownfield site. The site as it is now, is an environmental hazard. Cleaning it up is the best thing we could do for this site. As for full disclosure, we are getting full disclosure. You just have to ask the right people. The LJS ran a little article stating the EPA has not done their evaluation of the site. This is nothing really new, considering how bureaucratic the government is, the EPA is just now catching up with us. The city has done a study on the site, and have found that the site will not create huge problems. From my experiences with studying these types of brownfield sites, I am fully confident that we will not run into any problems. There are so many success stories on brownfield development in the last decade. A few brownfield sites have been turned into public parks, and there have not been any incidents. The Qwest Center in Omaha was built on a brownfield site, along with the hotel adjacent. There have just been so many innovations lately in the way we finance and we clean up brownfield sites.

I should add that we are also conserving the habitat and wetlands for the area just west of the development. This is mandatory considering that the Tiger Beetle lives in the Salt Creek.

These are just preliminary design elements, but I have no doubt that these would be implemented into the final design. There are more specifics about the LEED-ND potential for this project, if you want to know more, feel free to ask.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Pirog on March 16, 2010 at 11:14am

Codah,

Thanks for the detailed response, definitely answered most of the questions that I had. Figured there had to be a pdf out there somewhere that had the details in it.

For those interested in a link to the IDP: http://lincolnarena.info/assets/IDP_Final_Report_073009-1.pdf

It's 187 pg PDF so it may take some time to load.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Davis on April 5, 2010 at 5:41pm

Looks like W. Cecil Steward, FAIA, President, Joslyn Castle Institute For Sustainable Communities has written a great article about the necessity of community participation in the Lincoln Arena plans in order to create a truly sustainable community project:

http://www.lincolngreenbydesign.com/news/index.php?id=123

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