It’s been awhile since this topic was brought up, and this is what I brought to the plate;
One of the biggest arguments Minnehaha Country Club had was that the land was a Audubon reserve that should be preserved. I couldn’t agree more. It is some of the most beautiful green space in the entire city, and if you have the money, you can see it. I think my approach would shoot holes in their argument and help the city get federal and state funding for the project. Build a state park in the middle of Sioux Falls.
Then here comes another great argument to finally build the east/west route;
Beings that the top 5 worst intersections in Sioux Falls are 41st Street and Kiwanis Ave, 41st Street and I-29, 41st Street and Louise Ave, 41st Street and Western Ave, and 41st Street and Marion Road, I can clearly see now, as the city council does, that our problem here must be on 57th Street and Bahnson Avenue on the south-Side, which is where there just so happens to be a small segment of land our greed-stricken city planners have their sights on annexing next. Perhaps the money junkies can use that land to move their sacred golf courses to the outskirts of town, as opposed to bottlenecking the entire city on two main routes, sparing the residents of Sioux Falls from 400+ traffic collisions every few dozen months, just so that the money junkies don’t have to go through the horror of driving an additional 15-minutes outside of town to go golfing.
While I agree 100% with Devin, the monied elite will never let this happen. Several mayors (Hanson, Munson & Huether) have all said that putting the golf courses in the center of town was bad planning, but none of them have had the guts to do anything about it. While they have bullied an entire neighborhood on the Southside over a Walmart, they won’t touch the country clubs with a ten foot pole.