Omaha launches streetcar website illustrating funding strategy, timeline

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - “We are building momentum in Omaha.”

That’s the message greeting visitors to the city’s new informational website — omahastreetcar.org — on the streetcar project, approved nearly unanimously by the Omaha City Council just over a month ago.

The Omaha streetcar plan, announced about a year ago in conjunction with plans to build a Mutual of Omaha skyscraper, connects downtown with the Blackstone District and University of Nebraska Medical Center; the preliminary route calls for the line to run mostly along Farnam Street.

In addition to a map of the planned route, the website also features a timeline for the project, showing the streetcar in service in the winter of 2026. It also has an email portal to submit questions and sign up for updates on the streetcar project, and links to the Urban Core Housing and Mobility Redevelopment Plan.

The website also illustrates and summarizes the city’s plans to pay for the $360 million project by use of the streetcar service — something several residents raised concerns about during public comment on the project:

“The streetcar generates the money to pay for itself by sparking new economic development and enhancing the value of what already exists along the route, without raising the property tax levy.”

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert has said the streetcar can be built without a tax increase, and that the taxes created from those who want to build along the route are expected to cover it.

According to the timeline, construction will begin in the summer of 2024.

Members of the public have also expressed concerns about how that process will disrupt utility lines and businesses along the route, and how it will impact the city’s bike lanes.

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