City Administration tries to hide almost $90K of Legacy parking ramp in consent agenda

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While I’m sure one of the councilors will have it pulled for discussion (Item #1), I am getting increasingly worried we are ramrodding a parking ramp thru that;

  1. We may not need
  2. Built in wrong location
  3. Will it benefit parking DT or the private developer’s business
  4. Using a development company that is still under investigation from OSHA
  5. Hasn’t received final bond funding from the council (actually nixed from the 2017 budget)

This train needs to be stopped, until at least the OSHA report is made public. We shouldn’t be spending tax dollars on a project that may not have a future. Not sure if there is enough votes (5 or 6) to stop the funding tonight, but hopefully there will be a good discussion.

What was I saying about suspension when it comes to the Copper Lounge building collapse?

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Here we go again, a daycare provider under the suspect for a death, and what does the city do?

Her daycare license was suspended immediately pending an investigation.

LuAnn Ford with the Sioux Falls Health Department said, “Suspension generally happens very quickly because if children are at risk we want to put the daycare out of business as fast as we can.”

Yet a building collapses on a worker and kills him and the city and state’s attorney’s office does no investigation of the construction company.

I have been told by a county official that the State’s Attorney is watching the OSHA investigation closely and ‘may’ respond once that investigation is complete.

Is another parking ramp downtown being vetted correctly?

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The first thing I can say is that I am grateful the city council killed the funding of the DT parking ramp in last year’s budget hearings. At least now we have a buffer from Veto Vinnie the Mayor before another one can be built.

Besides the fact that Legacy shouldn’t be touching any public projects with a 100 foot crane until a full investigation of the Copper Lounge collapse is completed, there is the bigger question if the proper location is being picked.

Like Washington Square, that got a TIF because they are promising FREE parking on nights and weekends (even though there is a parking ramp right across the street that offers the same thing) some wonder if building another parking ramp across the street from the current one on 10th is a very wise idea.

There is also the question if this should be a sloped parking ramp. As Bender pointed out in his market report last week, we should be focusing on flat parking structures because they can be repurposed if they don’t fill with parking.

There is also the question if parking ramps downtown are really being used at 100% capacity. Recently a South DaCola foot soldier perused them DT on a weekday afternoon and found the upper levels to be almost empty. Remember, the city is relying on a parking study done almost 3 years ago.

The city is once again pushing their idea to the city council during the informational meeting today. Some have suggested that the location of a new ramp should be closer to the Eastbank and something that could compliment the RR relocation project.

If anything, the council needs to kill the current plan, with or without a replacement plan.

 

Citizens get involved with a redevelopment project and everybody has a cow

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It was one of the biggest Public Input involvement the city council has ever seen when the Oakview neighborhood showed up ahead of the approval of the Lacey apartment complex proposed by a local developer.

In fact the movement was so huge it helped to create one of the biggest neighborhood associations in the city (almost 10x the size of other neighborhood associations in the city).

It also prompted the city to try to stomp out the public input by creating benign rules before you can testify at Planning Meetings. They also came after a city councilor for encouraging public engagement with threats of false ethics charges.

The efforts of the neighborhood killed the project. That wasn’t a bad thing. It showed when you get involved with your local government you can make a difference. But the neighborhood is NOT against redevelopment of the area, they just want to be involved with that decision. This is where they are misunderstood.

But it seems some people are not happy the citizens voiced their concerns and got involved;

“Nobody wants to even make an offer because they don’t want to go through what Kelly and Lois went through last year,” said Arlie Brende, the Browns’ attorney who’s helping them navigate the process at City Hall. “It was brutal.”

Last year the Browns had a purchase agreement with Lloyd Companies contingent on it being rezoned for multi-family housing. The developer wanted to build an apartment complex but neighborhood opposition ended up killing the project.

So now we are comparing the public’s involvement with redevelopment a form of brutality. WOW. But Mr. Brende is famous for his quips.

The development community with the help of an anti-citizen planning department has been able to ramrod their wishes down the throats of citizens with out much resistance. The first battle occurred with the Walmart at 85th and Minnesota, and while that neighborhood is still fighting that battle, the residents of Oakview were not having it, and fired the first shots which took the developer by surprise.

Hopefully when the dust clears this time, everyone will be in agreement with the final project. Democracy is messy, but it is supposed to be, we get better government and in this case better development when citizens are involved.

Bender Market Outlook 2017 (Feb 23, 2017)

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Bender Commercial presented its 20th Annual Market Outlook to Sioux Falls on Thursday, February 23, 2017 in the Washington Pavilion Mary W. Sommervold Hall.

The presenters gave the audience of business and community leaders along with Cameraman Bruce a look at the future of Sioux Falls as they see it. We also get to see a snapshot of each of the presenters as they looked in 1997.

Presenters included, Michael Bender, Andi Anderson, Nick Gustafson, Reggie Kuipers, and Rob Fagnan discussing the future of their fields of interest.

See what might be in our futures here in river city.