According to the residents that live and work throughout Bellevue, the suburb is becoming a more developed and populated area due to modernization.

As Bellevue continues to expand in population and construction of buildings, English instructor Carla Palo, who has been living in Bellevue for over a decade, gave her  opinion on whether she believes Bellevue is modernizing or not.

“In the time that I’ve been here, which has been since about 2001, I think some of the demographics have changed and part of that is just the expansion of the Omaha metro kind of toward the west, more people moving into Papillion and Gretna,” Palo said.

The development rate for Bellevue is currently at what it should be, and doesn’t fall behind the neighboring suburbs like Papillion, Gretna, and La Vista.

“It’s maintaining a good pace, we’re not trying to outrun Omaha, we’re not going outrun Papillion, but yeah I think we’re doing alright,” Superintendent of Lueder Construction Gary Beyersdorf said.

According to mixedusemasterplancommunity.com, one of the top ten reasons companies may relocate is to have new and bigger room in order to expand their business with the need of space, modernize its own facilities and equipment, and to be in a more populated area to get their market in the public eye.

“We got a new convention center open by the theater. New auto-dealerships kind of pulling off of the Fort Crook and they’re now on the bigger road, Kennedy. Offutt just built a brand new building,” Beyersdorf said.

Those living in Bellevue discussed if certain areas in the suburb is currently still developing or not.

“I think there’s been a lot of kind of new construction and changes maybe farther west in Bellevue, whereas in Olde Towne Bellevue and farther East in Bellevue y’know you see more kind of businesses that have closed or buildings that are not being used which is too bad; I’d really love to see more people trying to build up businesses and things on the East side of Bellevue instead of just automatically kind of heading to the west side,” Palo said.

Younger residents of Bellevue have their own perspectives on if the city has changed in terms of modernization and expansion. East senior Keegan Lombard has noticed little Bellevue growth.

“I believe Bellevue is just growing at a slow constant rate. For all the years I’ve lived here, there hasn’t been a whole lot of changes that has been noticeable to me,” Lombard said.

For the future modernization of Bellevue, residents are hopeful for further expansion as well as more businesses in Olde Towne.

“With the rate the city is growing it’s not going to change much. Hopefully something comes up in the future that will make a huge impact on everyone’s lives and just makes this an even better suburb,” Lombard said.