Came across this article today, maybe I lapsed reading about this getting this far in the local media, please correct me if I missed anything;
Lincoln County, S.D. fights for the right kind of road
Lincoln County is located in the southeastern portion of South Dakota and includes part of Sioux Falls, the largest city in the state. Sioux Falls is a major trade area for a four-state region and boasts two large health care providers that are nationally recognized for their medical research.
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The county has seen significant growth over the past 10 years, doubling in size to an urbancentered 50,000-plus population​ from a mainly rural population of 24,000. The transformation of this county to urban from rural has been a challenge for the Board of Commissioners, as has keeping a proper balance between the two and providing necessary funds to support this growth.
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Interstate 29 runs the length of Lincoln County’s borders, which has provided for increased transportation opportunities. Just north of its boundaries is Interstate 90, running east and west. In addition to ground transportation, Lincoln County is fortunate to own a small regionally significant airport that has seen increased activity over the past several years. It has been used for commercial purposes attracting business usage.
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Upon learning that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was scheduled to provide an overpass on Interstate 29 for 85th Street, which would be a main artery for transportation into the city of Sioux Falls, a group of land owners petitioned the FHWA to consider an interchange instead of an overpass in order to open up opportunity for economic growth. Ascertaining that the interchange was not being considered by the Federal Highway Administration, the county engaged in a conversation with the South Dakota Department of Transportation to determine if arrangements could be made at a state and local level to provide for this interchange.
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Commissioners Dale Long and Jim Schmidt held several meetings with the Department of Transportation​ Secretary Darrin Berquist and South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard (R). After several weeks of deliberation and negotiations, the end result was that the county would take the lead in borrowing $15
million to be combined with private investment of $4 million. The state provided the cash flow necessary to
secure the land for the interchange. The deal was struck.
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This is the first time in the history of the state that a public-private partnership has been successfully put together for the sole purpose of economic development. One of the state legislators is further investigating
that this area be designated as an enterprise zone, which could further be a model for the rest of the state to follow.
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NACo President Riki Hokama has made transportation one of the major planks in his administration. The challenge that counties face is to provide increased revenue to meet the demands that are placed upon them. Lincoln County is no exception. As the county looked towards its future, the commissioners
recognized that without continued economic growth they would be facing a revenue shortfall in the next
five to seven years.
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Rather than waiting for this to happen, they acted on the opportunity that was presented to them to invest in
the future, increase their tax base and provide funds necessary for schools and communities.
This is smart. That’s got the potential to be a great point for development given projected growth patterns. Maybe they can move that south side Walmart over there.
In the present environment, Lincoln or Minnehaha counties have little say. The city of Sioux Falls dominates the southeast part of the state. It’s mostly because they have disproportionate sales tax revenue. What happens here will be what the Home Rule strong mayor decides. It will be without public input. It’s probably already decided with construction awarded to out of state contractors.
You know about 5 or so years ago the Federal Government struck down putting an interchange at 85th and I-29. After all the studies, EPA and environmental, and economic, it was discovered by the Fed that the traffic pattern didn’t warrant it up until year 3035 if I remember rightly. There was also a concern about enough room to have proper north bound entry onto I-29 with people trying to exit off to I-229 at the same time. This was at the time The President was begging for stimulus projects and it was thought this would go. But the Fed DOT said it wasn’t needed even with all the business projections, increased traffic; and at the time Sanford was going to build their research center about a 1/2 mile north on the east side and wanted it in the worse way. How do I know all this? Because I was asked to be on the committee that spent a year and a half on the study with the contract engineer trying to find out if it feasible. And at the end, even though we had come up with some designs for an interchange, safety going north bound was not a 100% answered. And what was over looked was possibly improving the Tea Interchange to two lane on/off ramps and four lanes of Tallgrass to 69th. Which one mile of that four lane from 85th north will have to be done any way. So what has changed? Oh, $4 million from private investors.