Planners OK plans for new Lincoln Housing Authority complex | Local Government

The commissioners voted unanimously in favor of an annexation, zoning change and special permit for about 13.6 acres on the northwest corner of West Old Cheney Road and South Folsom Street.

The Lincoln Housing Authority, which owns the land, wants to develop it into a low-income housing project with 104 apartments and 24 town houses.

The site is in a developing area that the city has designated as appropriate for urban residential development. Single-family houses have already been built south of the site and Lincoln Public Schools owns land just to the west that’s intended to be the site of a future elementary school.

Construction is not likely to start for at least a year, but the Housing Authority is seeking approval of the plan now because it needs to apply for low-income housing tax credits, and the deadline for this year is in mid-March.

Tom Huston, an attorney representing the authority, said it will get extra points in the tax-credit scoring system and have a better chance of approval if its plans have been approved by the city.

Though the development would introduce more than 100 housing units into what’s still a largely rural area, it does not appear to have any opposition from neighboring property owners.