The Crossroads Community Redevelopment Area was established by the Omaha City Council in 2011, based on a recommendation by the Planning Department. The deteriorating Crossroads property was the focus of the CRA. With a CRA, per state law, the area is designated substandard and blighted. This status enables developers to request TIF to finance their projects.
Does the Crossroads CRA include only the Crossroads property? No. It includes many residential neighborhoods that are not blighted or substandard based on common sense observation. However, state definitions of substandard and blighted make it easy for the Planning Department to make it as such. The harm to residential property owners: the potential for developers to use the CRA designation and TIF to rezone neighborhoods and build apartment complexes or commercial buildings next to homes. This has already begun in the area of 76th and Pacific.
The goal: convince the Planning Board to recommend removal of all parcels from the CRA except the Crossroads Mall parcel, which affectly adheres to the narrative in the 2011 Planning Board recommendation.
This website is under construction. More to come. Below is the Crossroads CRA map. You can also go to this website https://planning.omaha.gov/tax-increment-financing-process/, and halfway down enter your address where it says “Find address or place,” and this will tell you if you are in a CRA.
