North Omaha residents get a seat at the table in Highway 75 study funded by $1.5M federal grant

OMAHA, Neb. — For decades, North Omaha has lived with the impact of a freeway that cut through the heart of the community, displacing homes, businesses and places of worship along the way.

Now, a new effort is asking a different question: what could North 75 look like if the people who live here help shape its future?

The Metropolitan Area Planning Agency is the recipient of a $1.5 million Reconnecting Communities grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The study is also supported by an additional $190,000 in local city funding.

Mike Helgerson, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency, said the grant is focused on the historical impact of infrastructure like Highway 75.

"The grant itself and the program itself is focused on kind of how facilities like the north freeway and like railroads and like ports have historically divided communities. They're major infrastructure investments, but they also have this role in kind of dividing areas," Helgerson said.

Longtime North Omaha resident Preston Love Jr. remembers life before the freeway.

"We were discriminated in unequal and unfair educational opportunities, all of that. But we were a community that was unified in that struggle," Love said.

MAPA's initial application for the grant lacked community input. The agency later partnered with community-based organizations like Spark and One Omaha.

Kimara Snipes, executive director of One Omaha, said residents saw the highway as more than just a road.

"People didn't just see Highway 75 as a highway, right? It was something that created barriers in the community. It was something that is a reason why businesses here on 24th Street, going as far as 16th, over the 30th, lost businesses," Snipes said.

Snipes said she hopes North Omaha residents remain part of the planning process going forward.

"Maintaining a lot of that cultural fabric that exists, being able to empower the people who currently live here right now. To me, that's something that I would love to see," Snipes said.

She also pointed to MAPA's first failed application as proof that community engagement matters.

"MAPA wasn't able to get this funding the first time because of that lack of engagement, which shows me that people want to hear from residence at that ground level," Snipes said.

MAPA says the findings will help shape what happens next, and community members will continue to have a seat at the table.

"We'll be looking to partners and community organizations to really help us shape that vision of how and when things should happen and how they align with other investments that are happening," Helgerson said.

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