BLAIR, Nebraska — For about three years, Jason Thiellen of E&A Consulting Group watched client after client turn down the prospect of developing a housing subdivision on a tract of land near the Walmart in this town of about 8,000 people.
At the same time, Blair City Administrator Phil Green was on a mission to spur new residential dwellings that would grow the town and its tax base and keep local workers from living away.
He and Thiellen, who is also president of Welcome Home Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for better housing access, teamed up with others including Bluestem Capital Partners in the municipal securities industry and state Sen. Mike Jacobson, a banker from North Platte.
Together they pushed for change they believe will prod developers to take on small-town homebuilding projects previously shrugged off as too risky…