Special Series: ‘Talent and Innovation Initiative’ – Site & Building Dev. Act

(Editor’s Note: In this four-part series, Tom Chapman breaks down four bills that are a part of Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman’s “Talent and Innovation Initiative.”) This bill will set aside $3 million for the development of industrial, business and commercial sites. It allows for numerous uses of the money including demolition, infrastructure, construction and renovation/rehabilitation…

Editor’s Note: In this four-part series, Tom Chapman, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, breaks down four bills that are a part of Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman‘s “Talent and Innovation Initiative.”

Chapman can be found on Twitter, @tchap623, or you can contact him at tchapman@omahachamber.org.

Governor Heineman is joined by First Lady Sally Ganem to deliver his State of the State Address on January 13, 2011. Photo from governor.nebraska.gov.

Since 2006 and before, the forces of good have pleaded with the State of Nebraska to bring the State into the 21st century regarding incentives for new innovative ventures. Governor Heineman’s 2011 budget included many features that have been requested and are a significant regulatory improvement for the state and its entrepreneurial ecosystem. Without further adieu, one of the four bills that make up the core of the Governor and the Legislature’s efforts:

LB 388 – Site and Building Development Act

This bill will set aside $3 million for the development of industrial, business and commercial sites. It allows for numerous uses of the money including demolition, infrastructure, construction and renovation/rehabilitation of buildings and sites. In general, the financial tools available require a match for many types of projects – but grants and 0% interest loans without a match are available “to acquire land, infuse infrastructure [and] otherwise make large sites and buildings ready for industrial development.” Again, there is a notation that it should be used throughout the State and 40% must go to non-metro areas.

The official mechanism is to transfer money from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to the new Site and Building Development Fund on or after October 1, 2011 (but no later than October 10, 2011).

This is a little outside of my comfort zone as a commentor – so I will state the Chamber’s position. Site development prevents us from landing certain types of projects or getting into the conversation regarding certain projects. For example, in North Omaha, there are limited sites that are currently ready if a large project would decide to move there. This land limitation has a detrimental impact on our ability to attract and retain companies in the region.

From a Silicon Prairie News perspective, the biggest issue is that we have had a number of good projects that would have brought talented individuals to the region fail to consider Omaha due to a lack of land that is ready for development. Some other states, Texas, as an example, have significant resources devoted to ensuring that sites are available in most of their major communities. Omaha and other communities in Nebraska should have similar priority placed on making sure that good, developable sites are available for attraction and retention projects. The Chamber supports LB 388.

Look for the last post in our “Talent and Innovation Initiative” series in the coming days.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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