Council hears debate over Highlands Townhomes: turn‑lane length, parkland sale and stormwater detention

Lincoln city staff and a developer clashed on Oct. 6 over traffic safety, cost and housing trade‑offs tied to a proposed 72‑unit multifamily project near Northwest Thirteenth Street and West Fletcher Avenue.

Elizabeth Elliott, director of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU), asked the council to deny a developer request to shorten required turning lanes on Fletcher Avenue. “Ultimately, our reason for denial is grounded in safety first,” Elliott said, explaining LTU’s access‑management standard calls for a 300‑foot turn lane on that arterial and that the city’s standard is supported by AASHTO guidance and federal crash‑reduction goals under the Safe Streets Lincoln initiative. Elliott told the council the developer’s requested reduction — roughly cutting the lane length to 155 feet — “does not meet the safety standards, and that would create an unsafe area where we would likely see many more rear end crashes and potentially serious, if not deadly crashes at a 45 mile an hour arterial zone.”

City planning and parks staff described related land actions that are part of the same package: a use permit to develop 3.45 acres into…