Housing plan for East Philip, Bicentennial wins first-round approval for rezoning at North Platte City Council | Local

“I’d like to be able to give back to North Platte,” he told the council.

McKeon’s southern 10.58 acres fronting Philip would retain its I-1 light industrial zoning for future business development if the council rezones the rest.

New homes and duplexes would be built in three stages due east of Bicentennial, with the street’s intersections with Burlington Boulevard and East E Street defining the project’s western boundary.

Tax increment financing isn’t part of McKeon’s project, which would build atop a farm field. The requested R-3 zoning also rules out mobile homes, Planning Administrator Judy Clark has said.

R-3 zoning also allows apartment buildings, but Mike Gayeski of Denver, one of McKeon’s investors, said the partners decided against that after initially considering it.

Gayeski, who said he plans to move to North Platte, pointed out that apartment buildings require more capital than single-family homes.

“The goal is to build affordable housing,” he said.

The 2018 North Platte-Lincoln County housing study called for major efforts to build new housing units and rehabilitate existing ones to build inventories for homebuyers and rentals up to healthier levels.

Two apartment projects are under construction in North Platte: the nearly finished expansion of Pacific Place Apartments, 500 N. Pacific St., and the mixed-use Victory Village development at West A Street and Lakeview Boulevard.