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1 PUBLIC HEARINGS
2
3 IN RE: DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL )
IMPACT STATEMENT AND DRAFT )
4 SECTION 4(F) STATEMENT )
5 SOUTH AND EAST BELTWAYS, )
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA )
6 PROJECT NO. DPU-3300(1)
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9 Hearings held April 23 and 24, 2001, at the
Lincoln Berean Church, 6400 S. 70th Street,
10 Hearing Room 1, Lincoln, Nebraska
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A P P E A R A N C E S
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HEARING OFFICER: MS. MUGGS BONNETT
15 The Mediation Center
1120 K Street, Suite 200
16 Lincoln, NE 68508
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ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 I N D E X
2 WITNESSES: PAGE
3 Howard Seuferer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
12300 South 96th Street
4 Roca, NE
5 Dean Petersen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
14400 Old Cheney Road
6 Walton, NE
7 John Schleicher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1430 Sumner Street, #1
8 Lincoln, NE
9 Connie Reed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
12501 Fletcher
10 Waverly, NE
11 Rich Schwabauer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8104 S. Cherrywood Drive
12 Lincoln, NE
13 Todd Schopp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10800 Ellenridge Road
14 Lincoln, NE
15 Lee Anderbery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5120 Jade Court
16 Lincoln, NE
17 Kenneth Stading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6100 N. 98th Street
18 Lincoln, NE
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ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 (At 5:23 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
2 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Howard Seuferer and
3 the court reporter being present, the following
4 testimony was given:)
5 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Give your name
6 and spell your name for her.
7 HOWARD SEUFERER: My name is Howard
8 Seuferer, S-e-u-f-e-r-e-r. I live at 12300 South 96th
9 Street. I am 1,000 feet from the beltway, and they
10 told me that the decimals wasn't high enough, that they
11 weren't going to put no trees or nothing. But I think
12 it would be nice if they would put some trees or
13 something, give us a little more privacy from the view
14 of it. And that's the only thing I wanted to comment
15 about was just the -- give us a little more privacy so
16 we won't have to see so much traffic.
17 You live out on an acreage, that's the
18 reason you get away from the city. That was it.
19 (Testimony concluded at 5:27 p.m.)
20 (At 5:30 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
21 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Dean Petersen and the
22 court reporter being present, the following testimony
23 was given:)
24 DEAN PETERSEN: My complaint to start off
25 with is this is not a public hearing. This is
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 something the government has done to avoid controversy.
2 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Let's get your
3 name.
4 DEAN PETERSEN: Dean L. Petersen,
5 P-e-t-e-r-s-e-n. My address is 14400 Old Cheney Road,
6 Walton, Nebraska, 68461. And I have lived in the area
7 out there for 14 years. Thirteen, 14 years. And I
8 have testified before the commons, before the city
9 council, and before the county commissioners. And the
10 whole concept of an East Bypass is ill-conceived.
11 Lincoln is trying to solve their problems
12 like they always do by putting it out in somebody
13 else's backyard. They tried this with the city dump.
14 They were moving the dump from North 48th Street. They
15 were going to put it in the Bennet watershed. They
16 were going to move it everyplace else. They don't want
17 to fix any of their problems within their own
18 jurisdiction, so they always come out and put them into
19 somebody else's backyard.
20 The idea of a public hearing, this is not
21 my idea of a public hearing, and I have very strong
22 feelings that we will not even have these things read.
23 This is an idea on the part of the people that are
24 trying to voice this whole project to the public
25 without realizing the total amount of opposition that
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 there is to it.
2 Now, I have got a trucking company, and I
3 run trucks. We use 148th Street and we use Highway 2.
4 We use Highway 34, and we use Highway 6 coming into
5 Lincoln. And the bypass, the South Bypass, we might
6 use that, but I will not be using the East Bypass,
7 whatever one of the items they use, because it takes
8 us -- to get over to the interstate, which the people
9 are trying to do when they're coming from the south and
10 east, will not go up to Waverly and then come back a
11 block north of O Street. In other words, it's 19 miles
12 out of the way for a truck to do that, which costs us
13 about $25. So we won't be using that.
14 Now, the idea of a public hearing -- and I
15 am on the board of the Lower Platte South District here
16 presently, have been for six years. And when we have
17 public hearings and we have controversial programs, we
18 have the people -- both the opponents and the
19 proponents -- come forward and give testimony before
20 the whole board that is going to be making the
21 decision.
22 Right now we're giving testimony to
23 nobody. We're giving testimony to the great white
24 father in the sky or somebody. I don't know. We don't
25 know how much opposition there is to it. We don't know
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 how much support there is to it. And so I would
2 request that if they really want to have a true public
3 hearing that they rent the Pershing Auditorium, have
4 the people come down there, have everybody come up and
5 give the testimony. That's the way to have it. It's
6 the only fair way to have it.
7 The government in controversial issues --
8 the government tries to sneak in the back door and put
9 something down against the will of the people. And
10 they can do it by saying, oh, well, everybody wanted
11 it. But we really don't know who is supporting it and
12 who isn't supporting it right now. If they want a true
13 value of true support, put it on a ballot. Let the
14 county vote on it. Then we can see what the true
15 support of the effort is.
16 Lincoln is trying the very same thing with
17 the Antelope Creek project right now. They're ramming
18 that down the people's throat over there from 16th,
19 17th, 18th. They have never had any vote on it.
20 They've never had anything done. It's all been
21 decided. And then they tell the people we're doing
22 this to help you, and it's not that way.
23 The city council did not vote to build a
24 new city/county building downtown in Lincoln. That was
25 brought in and built, never had a vote of the people,
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 and all of a sudden the taxpayers ended up with another
2 great big building down there and no input. It was
3 done under the counter, behind everybody's back.
4 And my father was the first full-time mayor
5 in the city of Lincoln here, and he got the city and
6 the county together when they tore down the old county
7 courthouse. He was the one that got them to go
8 together as a team. But they had the support of the
9 community to build the city/county building.
10 But -- this is all extraneous, but it is to
11 show you that this is what the new administrations have
12 been doing the last 10, 12, 14 years to get around any
13 objection of the public. They make it impossible for
14 somebody to get up in front of a group of people, not
15 just one or two people, and tell them what the problems
16 are or what they see as a problem.
17 The bypass is ill-conceived. Originally it
18 was going to be highway -- originally it was going to
19 be 72nd Street. Then it was going to be 84th Street.
20 And each time that they paved those roads and wanted us
21 to use those as truck routes coming up to the grain
22 places up at the ADM to get up there on Cornhusker
23 Highway, they said, no, this is going to be the truck
24 route.
25 Then they allowed the developers to jump
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 in. A truck route? We can't have trucks going down
2 here. We have kids going to school. That's the same
3 thing they have done. They delayed and delayed and
4 delayed making a decision. Now they are out to 120th,
5 142nd, or whatever they're trying to do. They're
6 trying to get further and further out of town.
7 If they're going to do that, why don't they
8 make State 43 at Palmyra the East Bypass and leave it
9 at that and don't go in here and disturb these farmers
10 and their farming grounds and their farming
11 operations. It should be with the whole vote of all of
12 the people, not just a few. Thank you.
13 (Testimony concluded at 5:37 p.m.)
14 (At 5:38 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
15 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness John Schleicher and
16 the court reporter being present, the following
17 testimony was given:)
18 JOHN SCHLEICHER: My name is John
19 Schleicher, S-c-h-l-e-i-c-h-e-r. I live at 1430
20 Sumner, No. 1, in Lincoln 68502.
21 I am a member and former officer of the
22 Preservation Association of Lincoln or PAL, which is
23 interested in preserving historic buildings, sites, and
24 neighbors in the city of Lincoln and in all of
25 Lancaster County. But tonight I don't officially
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 represent PAL. I am just here speaking as an
2 individual citizen. I have just been involved with
3 them for the past six years.
4 The Stevens Creek area is the location of
5 two National Register listed historic properties, the
6 Stevens Creek Stock Farm and the Herter-Hagaman
7 Farmstead, as well as numerous other properties
8 eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
9 Many of these historic farm properties have
10 pristine farm fields and pasturelands which are also
11 included as eligible for the National Register of
12 Historic Places, but the boundaries of which have not
13 been included in past historic studies of the proposed
14 beltway routes.
15 It's important to preserve not only
16 historic buildings and farmsteads, but also the
17 farmlands and fields that provide the economic
18 livelihood for these farms, in the past historically
19 and also many of them still do today.
20 This area of the country includes some of
21 the oldest settled lands in the county, not to mention
22 in the state of Nebraska as a whole. Many of these
23 farms were established a number of years before
24 Nebraska became a state in 1867, with some of them
25 dating back to as early as the late 1850s.
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 I strongly encourage public officials to
2 consider the threat of urban sprawl that is too rampant
3 in our country today as they look at various beltway
4 options, and ask you to strive to preserve not only
5 historic buildings, but the historic landscapes, and
6 the natural environment of the Stevens Creek area as
7 well.
8 I strongly encourage you to seriously
9 consider a no-build option, and I am concerned that
10 this study did not take this option into account at
11 all. If a beltway was not built at all in this -- at
12 this time, improvements could be made to other major
13 north/south arterials such as 70th Street, 84th Street,
14 and other streets farther to the east.
15 I guess I would also echo our previous
16 speaker's thoughts that if you're going to go clear out
17 to 148th Street, you might as well go to Highway 43 and
18 build a beltway where there already is a highway and
19 not disturb other farms and businesses located in any
20 of the beltway corridors.
21 If a final decision is made in favor of
22 building an East Beltway, I would strongly urge you to
23 place the beltway route where it would do the least
24 amount of damage to historic, cultural, and
25 environmental resources; and to consider developing the
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 beltway as a parkway, rather than a multi-lane divided,
2 controlled access freeway, thus limiting the speed at
3 which traffic would pass through the area.
4 There was a section in the proposal on
5 noise pollution, noise factors, and I think one thing
6 that wasn't talked about there was also the impact of
7 noise upon animals, whether they be wild animals,
8 domesticated animals, cattle, whatever have you. I
9 think that's a factor we need to think about as well,
10 which really probably wasn't addressed in the report,
11 at least very well.
12 Those of us interested in historic
13 preservation are not against future progress and growth
14 for our community, but we are in favor of protecting
15 our historic, cultural, and environmental resources as
16 this growth and development takes place, and in
17 preserving the quality of life in our city and county.
18 And I would also echo the comments of our
19 earlier speaker, that while this public forum is a
20 process, this process is, indeed, not a public hearing,
21 as he said. Since the city and county elected
22 officials are not present here to hear our testimony,
23 pros and cons as a group, I don't see this as being a
24 public hearing because I don't have any public
25 officials I am talking to. Yes, they will probably see
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 this or read it in maybe a condensed version, but what
2 I think by law is a public hearing is when you get --
3 as the gentleman before me said, you get pro and con
4 people in a big place, and you talk it out for a long
5 time. I think that's something that needs to be done
6 in a better setting than this one.
7 Also, I guess I would take issue --
8 finally, in closing here -- with the location of this
9 meeting. We have separation of church and state in
10 this country, and I think it's very inappropriate to
11 have a public hearing or a public forum such as this in
12 a church. I don't care if it was a synagogue or mosque
13 or church or what, but I think it's inappropriate to
14 have it in a religious place.
15 The last event was at the Events Center. A
16 church is not a good place for this, I don't believe.
17 I appreciate the chance to come. Thank you.
18 (Testimony was concluded at 5:44 p.m.)
19 (At 5:47 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
20 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Connie Reed and the
21 court reporter being present, the following testimony
22 was given:)
23 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: We will go on the
24 record. Again, thanks for coming. What we will have
25 you do in just a minute is give your name and spell it
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 for the court reporter. And give us your address so
2 that in case someone needs to get back to you for any
3 clarification, they will know where to reach you.
4 CONNIE REED: Okay.
5 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: You will have at
6 least 10 minutes to speak. If that isn't going to be
7 enough time, we can possibly extend it if there aren't
8 many people waiting to speak. Just go ahead.
9 CONNIE REED: My name is Connie Reed,
10 R-e-e-d. I live at 12501 Fletcher, Waverly, and that's
11 68462.
12 First I want to thank you for providing a
13 forum to let our voices be heard. Over the years they
14 have been very good about having these meetings to let
15 us voice our opinions, but sometimes you hear the
16 voices, but you don't really listen. Over the years at
17 the beltway meetings, nothing has really changed.
18 People put input in, but they haven't really changed
19 anything. You have done all of the federal government
20 programs, the environmental programs, the historical
21 ones, and still nothing has really changed.
22 There has been a lot of changes as far as
23 homes being built, power lines being done. You really
24 have to ask somebody about them. They're not in the
25 so-called book, the reference book. And there is a lot
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 of mistakes in the reference book. And if you tell
2 them about it, they will get back to you eventually. I
3 just got a letter today about something I left -- a
4 question I had about a month and a half ago. So they
5 do eventually get back to you.
6 There still doesn't seem to be any changes
7 being made from input from the people. It's like this
8 is what we're going to do. You can come and vent. You
9 can ask questions. But we're going to do this one way
10 or the other.
11 And I guess I really have a really hard
12 problem with the City of Lincoln coming outside of the
13 city limits, taking farmland, farmland that provides
14 incomes, to build a road, but they don't have the
15 courage to take the front yards of homeowners to widen
16 the roads in the city. People in Lincoln complain
17 about the lack of front yard and the loss of trees, but
18 they don't provide the income like the farmland does.
19 I appreciate the shade trees and the green spaces as
20 much as anybody, but they don't provide the income.
21 Before the City of Lincoln starts taking land away,
22 they need to provide wider streets in Lincoln.
23 And I did speak today with the people
24 upstairs about the issue of school buses. Nobody has
25 ever mentioned the safety of school buses. Most of
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1 this beltway passes over gravel roads. Those -- a lot
2 of those are school bus routes. They're talking about
3 4,000 cars, vehicles coming down my road. Nothing was
4 addressed as to the school buses. They stop at the end
5 of the driveways. What's going to stop the cars?
6 In the past we have had to call the county
7 sheriff because of the semis using our road, and the
8 traffic there has been near misses. Still nothing has
9 been addressed about the safety of the kids and the
10 school buses. They need to do that.
11 And, again, I want to thank you for letting
12 me vent my opinions, and it is nice to be able to come
13 to these and to know who to complain to, who to get
14 information to, and who to tell the information that's
15 in the book is not accurate and things that they have
16 not addressed.
17 But I still don't feel they're really
18 concerned about the people's views, because, like I
19 said, nothing has changed. They really haven't changed
20 the routes. There doesn't seem to be any more concern
21 about the loss of farmland, people's homes, the way of
22 living. It's just going to happen. Thank you.
23 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Thank you so much
24 for coming.
25 (Testimony concluded at 5:53 p.m.)
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 (At 6:02 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
2 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Rich Schwabauer and
3 the court reporter being present, the following
4 testimony was given:)
5 RICH SCHWABAUER: My name is Rich
6 Schwabauer, 8104 South Cherrywood Drive, Lincoln,
7 Nebraska.
8 I am not in favor of the East Beltway
9 whatsoever, but if we do have to have it, I think our
10 council, county board, and whoever should look at the
11 Far-East consideration like they have in the past with
12 the future widening of 96th Street, 110th Street, 120th
13 Street, 134th Street, 148th Street. I believe we want
14 to keep that beltway as far on the eastern edge of the
15 county as possible.
16 With the new studies that they have and the
17 way Lincoln is supposed to be growing in the next 10 to
18 15 to 25 to 30 years, houses will be out that far in 10
19 to 15, 25, 30 years. I think for -- I think we should
20 think about it better than our forefathers that weren't
21 planning for the city of Lincoln, it looks to me.
22 Personal opinion only.
23 That's basically all I have to say. Thank
24 you very much.
25 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Thank you very
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 much for coming.
2 RICH SCHWABAUER: Can I go back? I forgot
3 something. Like I said, 148th Street also would be a
4 perfect five-lane road, 134th, 120th, 110th, and 96th,
5 all five-lane roads north and south. Then Van Dorn,
6 Old Cheney, O Street, which is a highway, will be five
7 lanes some day, Adams, Holdrege. But that's where I
8 hope our leaders look ahead a little bit. Thank you.
9 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Thanks again.
10 (Testimony concluded at 6:05 p.m.)
11 (At 7:00 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
12 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Todd Schopp and the
13 court reporter being present, the following testimony
14 was given:)
15 TODD SCHOPP: For the record, my name is
16 Todd Schopp. And I live at 10800 Ellenridge Road, and
17 I just wanted to stop by and voice my opinion or make a
18 presentation on my thoughts about the beltway.
19 And primarily I have been reviewing it and
20 studying the information as it came out, as it was
21 available in the paper. I have read bits and pieces of
22 the environmental impact study and tried to find out
23 information that's important to me. In reading through
24 there, I have asked lots of questions. I attend every
25 seminar I can get my hands on. I called and inquired
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 about -- had different questions about the progress of
2 this whole process.
3 One of the biggest things that I have come
4 across is that my family and I, we built a home -- and
5 let me -- I guess, let me state that one of the -- the
6 corridor, the beltway that is affecting us the most is
7 the East-Close corridor. And one of the things that we
8 did prior to us building our home was we went and we
9 looked, did everything we could, looked at all of the
10 resources available, the comprehensive plan.
11 At that point in time, '93, basically,
12 there was no talk of any beltway going in where we were
13 at. We built our house in the country to live in the
14 country, all of the aesthetics of the country life as
15 far as clean air, wonderful environment, quiet, no
16 visible city lights. I mean, the city lights are a
17 ways away. They don't affect us so much. We can see
18 the stars. On any day I see deer. I hear pheasants,
19 meadow larks right now. It's just a great quality of
20 life, and I see my quality of life being greatly
21 imposed upon by this beltway coming in and being
22 proposed.
23 In the environmental impact study, there
24 hasn't been very much information or very much study
25 given to the fact of property valuation or degradation
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1 of property. I am a firm advocate -- or firm believer
2 that there might be a small percentage of people out
3 there that would probably -- could possibly benefit
4 from, you know, living so close to a beltway, but
5 having built this house in this environment and having
6 already been living there for eight years in this
7 environment, I just don't want to see that type of
8 thing disrupted.
9 We do have a lot of -- I don't know. Back
10 that up.
11 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: That's okay.
12 TODD SCHOPP: I just feel that there hasn't
13 been enough information given on -- there is just a
14 real short paragraph as far as the property valuation.
15 I can't find anybody that I would think of that would
16 be very interested in a property -- close proximity,
17 yes, for access, but yet that's in the country
18 environment that has a lot of noise pollution -- I call
19 it light pollution from the cars, the streetlights.
20 Well, I know that they take into consideration the
21 indirect lighting, but there is just --
22 You know, I do occasionally use the West
23 Beltway, and I just think about how these people might
24 be affected, you know, a lot of apartment dwellings,
25 townhomes, that type of thing. It's not something
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1 where, okay, we're going to build our house here and
2 raise a family. People don't tend to live right on a
3 beltway, like, hey that's where I want to live is right
4 next to a beltway.
5 It's a major thoroughfare as far as -- even
6 access, I mean, if you are going from one side of the
7 city to the other, these are things you take into
8 consideration when you purchase and you select this
9 home. So, I mean, property valuation is one thing I
10 think that really needs a lot more consideration, and
11 take a little more look at as far as -- I really think
12 it really degrades the value of the property, and it
13 doesn't make it as attractive.
14 If I was to find out that, okay, the
15 East-Close one is affecting me, I'm selling. But I
16 don't think I can get a fair market value based on the
17 proximity of the beltway, the East-Close Beltway. It
18 affects a lot more homes than any of the other two.
19 It's not fair to say that I want it to go
20 here or there because everybody has homes and their
21 livelihoods are going to be affected. Ancestry, this
22 farm has been in the family for generations. I
23 wouldn't want to have it disrupt my neighbor's quality
24 of life.
25 Obviously I am looking out for my welfare
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 first and foremost and my family, but there are a lot
2 more homes affected by the East-Close Beltway as
3 proposed, as it's stated. And obviously that's going
4 to have a greater impact on cost too because you're
5 going to be purchasing and affecting a lot more homes
6 and families as well as there is some other
7 unattractive things as far as the design goes. You
8 have to go a ways west and you have to loop way back
9 east. So there is some design aspects that aren't as
10 nice.
11 And the other thing I want to mention is
12 the development of Stevens Creek. When this beltway
13 was drawn in or proposed, there has been no
14 consideration given to the development of Stevens Creek
15 and how it's going to go in and the number of families
16 and homes and cars. Traffic is going to be affected
17 and impacted on this beltway at that time. That's just
18 kind of like a big gray fuzzy area out here that really
19 hasn't been addressed. So, I mean, I think the study
20 and the process has been going on for a number of
21 years, but it's going to be something that we need to
22 take a greater look at.
23 I hear people talk about, okay, the
24 East-Close one is going to be the one that's used
25 most. It's all subjective, I think. Who is using it?
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1 Who is going to use it most? People coming from Kansas
2 City? People going to Omaha? It's really difficult to
3 say. And some of the visual impacts on the neighbors
4 from the beltways too.
5 I guess in closing I would just like to say
6 I haven't really heard too much information about the
7 no beltway. There were four alternatives, that
8 East-Close, the Middle, the East-Far, and South, but
9 not a no beltway. I mean, I just feel like we're in
10 the situation where, hey, it's government-sponsored
11 money, federally funded, we have to take advantage of
12 this. This is free money. Well, not really. Is it
13 really necessary, question mark? I mean who is it
14 going to really help?
15 Unfortunately -- I mean, Lincoln is a great
16 city, but unfortunately the people that come before
17 us -- I mean, I can't speak for people 25, 50 years
18 ago. It was their lack of planning. And I think we do
19 need to do something, but I don't think this is the
20 answer. I think the no beltway -- if I had my
21 preference, it would be no beltway. But obviously if
22 we had to put a beltway in, I would say furthest out
23 where it affects the least amount of families, homes.
24 And, unfortunately, farms, it will affect
25 them. But we do have to take all of this into
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 consideration. We do have to look at the impact of
2 what we're going to have on the city and try to go in
3 and maybe expand some of these arterial routes within
4 the city and try to make them more passable. There
5 again, you are going to run into opposition about
6 widening the roads.
7 I recently attended a comprehensive
8 planning meeting where perhaps we make 27th Street one
9 way and 33rd Street the other direction. There are
10 alternatives to this, but we need to start within the
11 infrastructure first as opposed to saying this is the
12 answer, this is what we need to do to make our
13 livelihoods and traffic pattern better.
14 Even the South, I think it's -- it will
15 help get traffic off Highway 2, but, come on, people,
16 there is still truck traffic that comes into the city
17 of Lincoln and the city of Lincoln is growing. We need
18 to have that. It's not going to eliminate it
19 altogether, and accidents do happen. It will happen
20 wherever you are at.
21 In closing, I would like to say that I
22 appreciate this opportunity, but I think a lot more
23 information needs to be -- the EIS is quite a document,
24 but there is a lot more information that needs to be
25 given to the design aspects, as well as the property
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 valuation. As a homeowner, I don't think that's really
2 been addressed too much at all, and I don't want to be
3 left holding the bag because -- so to speak. If the
4 beltway goes in and my property value decreases, I am
5 going to be a little upset or disappointed, I guess is
6 what I want to say. So thank you.
7 (Testimony was concluded at 7:10 p.m.)
8 (At 7:12 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
9 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Lee Anderbery and the
10 court reporter being present, the following testimony
11 was given:)
12 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Anytime you're
13 ready.
14 LEE ANDERBERY: I guess the reason I feel
15 like I am impacted by the beltway is that I live in
16 Lincoln, but I work in Bennet and I am a frequent user
17 of the roads in that part of the county. And I really
18 realize that there is a very high need for the beltway
19 system to encompass Lincoln.
20 So with that much said, I also have a lot
21 of my customers that are going to be impacted by that.
22 I work at the bank in Bennet, and many of my customers
23 own property in the corridors that are selected. So I
24 have to be a little careful about what I say because I
25 don't want to upset my customers, but in looking at it
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 from a realistic standpoint -- and I went to the
2 Lancaster County Events Center a few weeks ago when
3 they had that informational meeting out there. I
4 really feel like the middle path for the beltway on the
5 east route is most appropriate because it sort of
6 follows the power line, which to me has already become
7 a natural corridor -- or an unnatural corridor, really,
8 because people have avoided building underneath the
9 power line. And I feel like that would probably
10 displease the fewest people.
11 I travel 148th Street a lot, and I see all
12 of the traffic going up and down there. So it's pretty
13 obvious that the need is there for an East Bypass. I
14 just feel like if it's -- if it follows that power
15 line, it's going to displease the fewest people. It
16 will be closer to Lincoln than the east route, and I
17 guess that's the one I would be in favor of.
18 My address, you wanted that down. It's
19 5120 Jade Court, and the zip code is 68516. I am
20 already on the mailing list.
21 (Testimony concluded at 7:15 p.m.)
22 (At 7:58 p.m. on April 23, 2001, with
23 Hearing Officer Bonnett, Witness Kenneth Stading and
24 the court reporter being present, the following
25 testimony was given:)
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: We will go on the
2 record. You can give your name and address.
3 KENNETH STADING: My name is Ken Stading.
4 I live at 6100 North 98th, 68507. The reason I
5 complain about these three routes is you're chopping
6 ground, and you're not leaving enough ground so that
7 they can have an acreage on them. If you -- the City
8 states that you have to have 21 acres for an acreage.
9 Okay. The City has claimed that they brought new homes
10 on the West Bypass along the interstate. If you go
11 back and look, the only new buildings that are put up
12 are multiple dwellings because they can buy the ground
13 real cheap. Okay.
14 You will not find any brand new
15 single-dwelling homes along either one of them routes,
16 either the bypass or the interstate. The new homes
17 that are going to go in that are of any money are a
18 mile and a quarter north of the interstate, which
19 started housing out there on North 14th Street. It's
20 Northwest 1st, North 14th Street, all in that area.
21 If you go down here and look at all of the
22 farms that you're chopping, who is going to buy this 57
23 acres that's left? You can't sell it. You can't do
24 anything with it. You can't put a private home on it
25 because there is not enough room for an acreage.
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 Okay. So if you go over here to 162nd
2 Street, you do not have any homes that would bother
3 you. You already have an overpass up here over the
4 interstate which you put your cloverleaf on, take your
5 south cloverleaf and move it over. You would minimize
6 the damage to the area. You would also minimize and
7 encourage growth out to the east. Because if you go
8 with these three here, Stevens Creek, it has to be used
9 for sewage.
10 All right. How you going to encourage
11 growth if you move these here? Because who wants to
12 move beside an interstate? You got your truckers
13 changing gears. You got jake brakes used out there.
14 You knock out the jake brakes from the truckers, that
15 doesn't take care of the sound of changing gears for
16 the hills.
17 Right now, 148th, if you want to clock
18 it -- I drive that twice a day with a school bus. You
19 are meeting the rock haulers, and they're getting
20 heavier every day. You're meeting anywhere from 12 to
21 15 semis twice a day. Let's move it out here where we
22 minimize damage and go for it.
23 HEARING OFFICER BONNETT: Did you have
24 anything else you wanted to add? I don't want to ruin
25 your train of thought.
ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 KENNETH STADING: That's it. Move it out
2 to 162nd. That way, ma'am, you don't destroy a lot of
3 ground. You don't destroy a lot of homes. There is
4 very few homes on that road. It's a dirt road right
5 now. They can put all of the cotton picking interstate
6 line in there with least amount of damage and least
7 amount of expense.
8 (Testimony concluded at 8:03 p.m.)
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ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
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1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2
3 I, Angela Weller, Registered Merit Reporter, do
4 hereby certify that the within and following complete
5 transcript contains all the testimony requested to be
6 transcribed by me and the comments of the hearing
7 officer, from the public hearings held in this matter;
8 and that said complete transcript is a correct and
9 complete transcript of the testimony requested to be
10 transcribed from the record made at the time of said
11 public hearings.
12
13 Dated this 27th day of April, 2001.
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17 __________________________
18 Angela Weller
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ANGELA WELLER, RMR, JS WURM & ASSOCIATES, (402) 475-DEPO
