Affordable housing demands.
I love the following suggestions. I have often thought that TIF’s are being misused in SF, and should be directed at affordable housing like the Fargo model.
Final sources.
Looks like the Sioux Falls City Council is getting a little kickback;
A group of neighbors are taking a stand against a controversial rezoning project that would build an apartment complex near their homes on the south side of Sioux Falls.
The proposed complex would be near 88th St. and Brett Ave., Which is just west of Louise Ave.
Earlier this month, city council members passed the rezoning proposal with a 7-1 vote (Stehly was the dissenting vote). That didn’t sit well with some people living in the surrounding neighborhood.
This was a tough one. I understood both sides of the coin. I understood how the 7 could support it, but I also understood Stehly’s position. I probably would have voted with the 7, but I would have asked for an amendment first for a larger buffer.
Homeowners don’t want the extra traffic to the area. They also don’t want the abrupt transition from their single-family houses to a multi-family affordable housing unit to affect property values.
I’m all for affordable housing, but their needs to be a decent transition. I think that is all the homeowners are asking for. Hopefully they get it with the re-vote.
There is also the precedent this may present;
Another big concern is for others homeowners in the city. If city officials allow the apartments to be built near their homes, neighbors worry they’ll be able to construct them anywhere.
“Whether they moved next to agricultural land or if they’re building in a new development, you never know. There’s not going to be really any restrictions,” Schauer said.
Well, that has been going on for awhile, maybe this petition will help put brakes on it.
I knew we would have an apartment building explosion after the housing market went to crap. It also doesn’t help we live in such a low wage city. Is Sioux Falls on it’s way to being a giant apartment complex?
Something I have been suspicious about a long time, picking favorites and winners and losers at city hall;
A Sioux Falls contractor says his company has been unfairly blacklisted from city building projects after a dispute over payment on an earlier project.
No other contractor currently carries the “non-responsible” designation.
Maybe the contractor could claim all of the bad things happened because of an ‘Act of God’. If the city can use it as an excuse for damaging personal property, why can’t a private contractor? What’s sad about this is the unlimited legal resources our city has to fight these kinds of things, with our money.
Wasn’t quite sure what I was witnessing last night, but there was the smell of burnt chislic in the air.
When the only two councilors to vote against the $90K Legacy money grab are the most conservative and the most liberal, one has to scratch your head a bit.
Councilor Starr questioned just how much parking we would get, and if this is just subsidizing the developer’s property and not really a benefit to ‘public’ parking.
Stehly had even more questions;
Stehly is concerned since Legacy Development owned the the Copper Lounge Building, which collapsed back in December. She wants to wait until the OSHA investigation is done.
She’s also concerned with not knowing who the investors are in the project, and using the 2nd penny sales tax as collateral.
While both Starr and Stehly make great points (and why they voted against the project). There are also many questions about the location and timing?
But even ‘IF’ we had all of the answers above, what baffles me even more is why isn’t Legacy paying these expenses? If they want the city to invest with them, then shouldn’t they be the ones to pony up?
And lastly, in reference to the lost sheep of the council, I actually expected a 4-to-4 OR 5-t-4 vote on this with the mayor fiddling around with a VETO or tie-breaker vote. Maybe that is why the council just gave in, they are getting tired of dealing with the VETO controversy. Which is disappointing, since it seems it only took 2 vetoes to whip the council back in shape.
Then there is the history of projects like this, like a lost sheep, they seem to have a short memory on how the administration has been able to ram-rod this kind of crap through. Always putting the cart in front of the horse and financing all the planning before a bond is even taken out. I told Neitzert if your family was planning on building a new home, you would go to the bank first and see what they would be willing to loan you and what you could afford before you ever met with a realtor or architect, unless of course you are independently wealthy and don’t care. Which is kind of the mayor’s mentality when it comes to taxpayer money.
The council certainly looked like lost sheep last night following the wolves into the forest. With so many unanswered questions and history behind this project, I can’t imagine any other reason they would approve something that was so obviously wrong.
Watch the full discussion. Second to last item on the agenda.