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Council allows public input and student capstone work for Hickory Square exploratory plans
Summary
The council gave staff permission to solicit public input and to work with University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering capstone teams to produce conceptual plans for the Hickory Square downtown site.
The council authorized staff to solicit public input and to continue exploratory work with University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) engineering students on concepts for the Hickory Square downtown site.
Brandy explained UNL has five student teams, each 4'5 students, ready to prepare capstone plans for the four-floor site and adjacent parking and alley boundaries. She asked council permission to gather public input for about four weeks and to allow the students to use the city's study area as a capstone project. She described the work as pro bono academic capstone work and said final engineering would still be required if the city chose to pursue a plan.
Council members gave verbal approval to proceed with the public-input period and the student-engagement plan. Council emphasized that previous drawings from a consultant (RDG) exist but said the students' concepts would be exploratory and not binding; staff said any university-produced plan would still require engineering before construction.
Why it matters: the project would produce multiple conceptual options at no cost to the city and gather public preferences to inform later professional design work.
Next steps: staff will solicit public input through the Spring Expo and related outreach; UNL teams will prepare capstone concepts for a public reveal at the end of their semester.
