Omaha City Council advances several major items including Costco annexation

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The Omaha City Council covered a lot of ground Tuesday after two weeks off. The meeting went well into Tuesday evening, covering 124 agenda items and taking nearly five hours to do so.

Of note, they green lit the annexation package to include the new Costco within Omaha’s city limits. It’s estimated that the city will collect more than 14 million dollars in taxes over 10 years.

They also approved seven items on the agenda they hope will improve infrastructure and safety in seven Omaha neighborhoods. City council approved $2 million of COVID-relief money for business improvement districts.

“The COVID recovery funds we did not think we would ever be able to take a part in them so we are really really thankful,” said Holly Barrett, Executive Director Downtown Business Improvement District. “A lot of these funds are not being spent on things BID’s normally spend money. We don’t normally spend money on infrastructure…but those are what our constituents tell us we need.”

Another highlight from the meeting, the city council heard a request for $52.2 million. The ask comes from the mayor to purchase three parking garages from Mutual of Omaha. The three garages are all near the company’s midtown headquarters. If they acquire the garages from Mutual of Omaha, they will turn spots into paid, public parking options.

“The city looks at this garage as being a good opportunity to provide city-managed public parking to support future development in that immediate area...so I think there’s a lot of opportunities to utilize that garage and utilize it well,” said Jennifer Taylor with the city law department.

That item will be voted on next week.

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