CONSIDER MOTION TO APPROVE, DENY OR AMEND CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT #21-17 TO ALLOW EXPANSION OF A PRIVATE AIRPORT APPROXIMATELY ONE MILE WEST OF SIOUX FALLS
It looks like on Tuesday at a joint 5 PM meeting the two bodies will consider the permit for the airport. I am still wondering if the FAA has weighed in;
The airport shall meet all FAA requirements.
I have to admit I am still on the fence about this. The Minnehaha County planning commission approved this 6-0 and the Sioux Falls planning commission denied this 5-2.
While I think that rich folks can spend their money however they choose, and build ludicrous things like airstrips, my main concern is how it will affect their neighbors and the city and county in general. Your property rights end when they inflict harm on your neighbors. This will be an interesting meeting to say the least.
But couldn’t gas emissions from the nearby dump confuse pilots with mirage images of the land beneath them? Why not use the Empire Mall parking lot instead? In a few years, there won’t be any stores there anyhow. Plus, the Western Mall used to be the site of an airstrip as well. Lindberg once landed there…. (“Look Mom!”…. “This airport has a Chick-fil-A!”….)
How about one mega municipal airport west of Madison SD. It’s central proximity with Sioux Falls, Mitchell, and Huron. It’s a little further to Aberdeen and Watertown and not to far to the Noem estate. Combining these population centers should attract federal money. There’d be several more airlines with more nonstop service. That area is not radio towers and other FAA consequences. Cities would eventually grow together. Foss field could become the private aviation center. The new location could become National Guard too. Existing rail lines could be mass transit to the airport and a hub connecting eastern SD cities.
Not gonna happen. Why, because it’s to practical.
What I find interesting is that a former city councilor, mayoral candidate (2 times) and current state legislator who is pushing this, along with a founder of the ethanol industry and an owner of a gigantic construction company that our local media has said nothing about this. Nothing. Not even a 2 sentence story. Oh, kind of like the $94 million dollar TIF.
On a sidenote did you know that corn ethanol has a zero sum energy affect, in other words the amount of energy and resources (mostly water) that it takes to make corn ethanol you get the equal amount of energy back while sugar cane ethanol gives 5x the energy back. I have said for a long time that corn ethanol is the biggest energy scam ever. There are even studies out there that show changing simple switchgrass into producing sugars gives a better outcome than corn. Wild grass! I hope their planes run on ethanol.
Aircraft propulsion work toward future development now-a-days is geared toward hydrogen power – not corn alcohoil.
The by-products of corn ethanol (distillers grains) have ALWAYS been the source of that process’s profits.