South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

July 2023

Downtown Sioux Falls Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Shape Places rears it’s head

l3wis 1Comments

Recently a prisoner transitional housing proposal came in front of the city council (Item #38). While the council moved it to 2nd reading, they seem to be opposed to approving the rezone to institutional from multi-family residential.

The problems are evident, changing from a regular apartment to a recovery home, buying the property BEFORE properly zoning it (the client in this case has pulled this song and dance before with other properties, so they KNEW exactly what they were doing, asking for forgiveness later, the oldest trick in the book).

While many have mentioned the sex offenders living at the facility, this is actually NOT a bad thing because 1) they would be supervised and 2) several unsupervised sex offenders already live in the neighborhood.

So what’s the problem? Shape Places, passed by the city council, and after opponents had a successful petition drive to repeal it, the voters also approved it. I helped a smidgen on the petition drive, and the ONLY real substantive change they wanted was to KEEP conditional uses in zoning (this gives the planning commission and city council the ability to put conditions on the rezone). Shape Places was stripped of this, so the Planning Commission and City Council really only have one option, approve the rezone and all the headaches that go with it, or DENY it which will likely leave this property as is, which is a dump.

If the council had the authority (before Shape Places) to put conditions on the rezone they could have worked with the property owner to at least make this a transitional, unsupervised housing (and that may be their plan moving forward).

As I tell people, the developers in town wanted this to ‘speed up the process’ or more like put things under the radar, the council passed it, and the voters passed it, it is what we have now.

The council CAN revisit Shape Places whenever they want to, and they have the power to modify it to re-allow conditional uses. I believe BOTH Minnehaha and Lincoln County Planning Commissions allow for conditional uses.

This probably happens more then we think, someone buys a property only to find out they are stuck with stringent zoning.

I support deregulation when it makes sense, but not giving our elected officials the ability to modify zoning on a case by case basis has really tied their hands.

Art Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken still pushing for full-time arts coordinator

l3wis 4Comments

You already know my position on the matter, I don’t think we need one and instead could rely on a stakeholder board and a part-time consultant. But for the sake of the argument let’s say I agree with the Mayor that we need this position (I agree we need SOMETHING better than what we currently have). Don’t you think it is a little odd that we have finance running the health department and the IT department, we have decided to ‘job out’ out internal audit, and the police force has had major turnover since Thum has taken over (this is a good thing, because I think he is cleaning some of the cobwebs out). You also have to remember his Cultural Officer that he needed, she was never replaced after leaving. I think the council’s position of wait and see is a good one, and once we get the SFPD fully staffed with competent officers and directors in key departments then we can talk about finger painting.

THE CITY NEEDS A FULL-TIME OPEN MEETINGS COMPLIANCE OFFICER

So it happened again this week, their was a meeting that posted the incorrect agenda so an item got pushed to next month’s meeting (this happened at the Active Transportation Board meeting). Councilor Neitzert informed the board he wanted to be on the agenda to talk about E2’s but they didn’t bother reposting the agenda within the 24 hour window. While they did the right thing by postponing the item, they did the wrong thing by not posting it when they were told about it.

It is time the city had a full-time open meetings compliance officer that makes sure all agendas are posted on time and correctly. If we are depending on department heads to do this right, it is obviously not working.

Kolbe Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

‘Who is getting screwed, and how bad?’

l3wis 5Comments

During public input tonight at the Sioux Falls City Council meeting, former Commissioner Robert Kolbe made the above statement that he said he took from Jim Abourezk’s memorial service.

I wasn’t quite sure where he was going with the testimony, but he ended with something like this;

‘You should take that barren wall you have downtown (bunker ramp?) and in the middle have a photo of the last four mayors and on top it would say ‘Sioux Falls is a great place to live . . .’ and under them it would say ‘In spite of them’.

As Kolbe leaves the podium Mayor Grunty says out loud into his microphone ‘Classy’.

I am starting to wonder what Poops has against former elected officials? Oh that’s right, they understand history (and probably don’t skip their afternoon naps so they are not a grumpy, grunting, mumbling chair at the meetings). I will start to get worried when he shows up to the meetings with a milk mustache and cookie crumbs on his shirt.

Every time I see the mayor do this, it seems he is trying to get a laugh out of councilor Jensen, which oddly reminds me of this scene;

Bike Trail Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: How does an E2 work?

l3wis 3Comments

UPDATE: The bicycle committee was evenly split on allowing E2s on the trail, but were supportive of a speed limit. The concern is the throttle, but as I have demonstrated below, you can put in a NO throttling rule on the trail for coasting or riding and it wouldn’t limit the E2 riders at all because they would be just riding with regular E1 assistance. The SFPD and Police Chief Thum has told councilors he is NOT in opposition to the E2 extension and has told councilors that nothing has happened in 5 years that would concern him with the use of the E2 on the trail. The Sioux Falls Parks Department Administration also does oppose the changes, but they do have to go in front of the Parks Board for approval hopefully in August. At the Active Transportation Board Wednesday morning they will be discussing and either recommend or deny the use of E2s. The meeting is at 8:30 AM, July 19, Old Commission Chambers at City Hall.

UPDATE II: I shot this video of the WORST intersection in Sioux Falls to cross as a pedestrian or bicyclist. It’s like a 1/4 mile crosswalk 🙁 This is NOT how you design a complete street. You wonder why people use the rec trail for commuting? Cross this intersection on foot or on a bike and you will figure out why.

Before I rode one 3 years ago, I had a lot of questions of how they worked. I put together some rough videos of how E2s work.

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