Development

Maybe developer Lloyd knows best afterall . . .

l3wis February 2, 2013 13Comments

I had a nice little surprise last night getting home from work. The water main was broke right in front of my house. Nothing like your house rattling like chattering teeth at 5 AM in the morning due to a dirt tamping device. I guess there was also a water main break last week to in central Sioux Falls. Surprised that Stormland TV wasn’t in my neighborhood wondering how I would take a shower before I went to bed, doing a team report about how I may have to wash my bed sheets in the morning due to my griminess, but how was I going to do that also? Dumb. In fact, I didn’t see one single reporter or anything in the news about it. Apparently since I didn’t have a threat of my bagged frozen gravy thawing out, it wasn’t news.

Which brings me to a bigger story our supposed media in town should be covering;

“How bad is the infrastructure Downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods?”

Developer and Human Key to the city (or at least to the cash box), Craig Lloyd has often contended that he can’t develop Downtown without TIF’s do to old infrastructure and hazardous conditions. He may be right, afterall, even though I still think he should fund his own FOR PROFIT developments.

So when is our MSM going to stop worrying about what their co-workers think about them while showering with them, and dig into the deeper story? Maybe Mr. Lloyd would like to do an exclusive interview with Detroit Lewis talking about all the exploding transformers, water pipes and melting gravy.

Will the developers ever be putting forth their fair share for arterial roads?

l3wis November 19, 2012 7Comments

As you can see from this graphic, developers haven’t even come close to chipping in 50% for arterial road development as they promised (several posts about the tax increase and lies from the developers) They would when we increased the second penny .02%. They have been good at blaming everything from the economy to the way the wind blows. Ironically any platting fees that they ultimately chip in for arterial roads probably is a wash because of all the TIF’s they are receiving lately.

Sioux Falls is slowly becoming a corporate welfare city, and this graphic is further proof of it. Whatever happened to the business model of ‘sink or swim’? Now it seems anytime a developer can’t afford something they just go running to the city for a lifesaver, and the planning commission, city council and Community Development office concedes. It’s time for the city council to put their foot down and say “Developers haven’t held up their end of the deal – so you are not getting this arterial street money.” Of course when you have several councilors and the mayor* investing in development in Sioux Falls, what else would you expect out of their self servitude. My suggestion would be to transfer that .02% into road maintenance and upgrades, and once the developers show us 50% we will put in our 50%.

*The mayor granted a TIF in the Whittier neighborhood for an apartment building his wife is investing in and councilor Jamison’s company did the facade remodel on Sid’s Liquor which received a facade easement grant from the city.

Besides TIF’s is the city considering ‘cash incentives’ to developers?

l3wis January 12, 2012 2Comments

Need Cash from the city? If you are developer in SF, you may be able to get drive up service at city hall.

A South DaCola foot soldier attended the city council working session yesterday, and was surprised to hear the city was considering ‘cash incentives’ besides TIF’s to developers. What a slippery slope! They told me this about the meeting;

The room was packed with developers (invited by Darrin Smith).  I sat next to a developer and a prominent city director. The developer kept making the remark ad naseum that he came to the meeting because he heard that they were handing out free money! He was giddy!  After he had said the same thing over and over, the city director that was sitting next to him said,

“Yeah, maybe we should just have a drive-up?”

I already think it is a farce we give TIF’s to developers to re-develop older neighborhoods when we don’t give it to residents who buy older homes and fix them up (though community development does a nice job with low-interest equity loans and grants). But I draw the line at cash incentives. How does a tax payer benefit from giving a direct payment to a private business without receiving a service? We don’t.

And secondly, how dare a city director joke about it.

You mean developers are not running City Hall? You had me fooled.

l3wis November 22, 2009 0Comments

The Gargoyle Leader’s editorial board never ceases to astonish me. Today they wrote an editorial reminding citizens who should set policy in Sioux Falls;

More importantly, though, city leaders – not local developers – need to be driving policy decisions on whether to adjust the hookup fees.

No shit sherlock. This editorial should have been written seven years ago. Citizens elect the council and mayor to vote for their best interests, but it seems this current council and mayor do the bidding of the big developers, time and time again.