OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — While work to improve the look of the N. Saddle Creek corridor, with new parking, lights, sidewalks, and more, continues, just down the road, another project, proposed in 2021, has yet to break ground.
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"The idea was to move the sewer line that went down North Saddle Creek, kind of get it around our new development, and put in a relatively large mixed use development," said Joshuwa Hannum, lead developer and chair of the Saddle Creek Business Improvement District.
Hannum wants to build 154 apartments and shopping spaces on this triangle lot where NW Radial, North Saddle Creek Road, and Hamilton Street come together.
"The first project is not dead yet, yet, but it could be," Hannum said.
And that's because, when you think of Saddle Creek Road on a heavy rain day, you may picture the floods we often see.
Where Molly Hudson was standing, near N. Saddle Creek and NW Radial Hwy, is where Hannum wants to redevelop. But look at this: this is the most recent federal mapping for the floodplain in the area, it shows the site right in the middle of the floodway.
Hannum says his team figured out a way to do the project without making the flooding worse, but that now has its own challenges.
"Everything is in for CLOMR (Conditional Letter of Map Revision). We are waiting for feedback and so once I do get the feedback from CLOMR, which we fully expect it to be accepted and approved, we will determine what we will do there, but we might do nothing," Hannum said.
Here's the catch: because the flood map process has taken so long, the cost to make the proposed changes to the sewer has increased. Which means Hannum is considering major changes to the original design.
He's instead picturing commercial space along NW Radial and reducing the apartment units to 50.
"I feel confident that we will figure something out, it just won't be the project that we were hoping for and that maybe a lot of other people were hoping for," Hannum said.
Hannum hopes to hear from the city within the next 45 days about a more definitive plan going forward.
