Grand Island to vote on blighting land

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by Josh Egbert

The Grand Island city council will vote Tuesday night on whether or not to blight hundreds of acres of land. That could make way for affordable housing.

The nearly 235 acres of the old Copper Creek Estates subdivision has only five houses.

The potential new owners of the land want to build the Residences at Copper Creek.

But in order to make it affordable, they'll need the area blighted.

The city council must decide whether to pursue a blighted and substandard designation for the land.

"What it does is it allows for the increased valuation, the taxes on that increased valuation, to be used for the redevelopment of the property to put in the things like the streets, the water, the sewer, the storm sewer, all of those things that really add to the cost of the lots," said Regional Planning Director Chad Nabity.

The area was rejected as a blighted area four years ago when the housing market wasn't faring well.

Nabity says the market is recovering and Grand Island has a need for affordable housing.

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