Minnehaha County Commission & Sioux Falls City Council fight over joint jurisdiction

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The CC and CC just can’t agree on whether or not to allow a wedding barn to be built in the middle of a corn field. Yes. You heard me right. You would think with all the big decisions to make, that a wedding barn (outside of the city limits) would be the last thing to debate about. Oh, and it’s painful.

Ironically the Sioux Falls Planning Commission and Minnehaha Planning Commission both agreed it was ok. The kicker? Jeff Schmidt with the city’s planning office is concerned that in 12-30 years from now a housing development may be built around the wedding barn, and it may hurt the growth of the development because of the ‘noise’ from a wedding barn.

Are wedding barns noisy? Hmm.

The biggest problem with this is that the city and county agreed on joint jurisdiction in the growth area of Sioux Falls. In other words, land that is still not annexed into city limits but could be in the future. Most of the time it’s fine, but Schmidt with the help of councilor Neitzert decided to nitpick about streets, drainage and commercial/residential development 12-30 years down the road. Right now the land is a corn field and zoned ag in the county, they need to re-zone so the barn can be built.

County Chair Heiberger reminded the bodies on the dais that the joint jurisdiction is a more or less a ‘polite’ agreement, and if the city continues to nitpick about stupid crap, the county may get rid of the agreement (well she really didn’t say that, but you get the feeling).

Towards the end of the meeting during public input I told both bodies to try to remember to bring legal counsel to these meetings (neither side had one present) and that they need to stop cooking up their legislative priorities in private with only leadership in the room.

Minnehaha County throws the ‘Code Enforcement’ book at rural resident

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(FF: 6:40) While I will give credit to the CC for giving this person many opportunities to clean up this lot, they put down their foot on Tuesday and now gave him 1 month to finish cleaning it up. They determined it a ‘public nuisance’. If he doesn’t clean it up, they will come in and seize vehicles.

Do I think he is in violation? Yes, but not as a ‘nuisance’. The only laws I feel he is breaking is not licensing abandoned vehicles. But I don’t think this is a ‘nuisance’ or health issue. He lives in a rural area for a reason, so he can collect his junk. I can go to any farm in this county or across the state that have junk tractors and equipment piled up. So what?! It’s a rural area.

I think they view this as a problem because he is on a major rural intersection where people can see it. As the owner points out, this property has been this way since his grandfather owned it in the 1940’s. In fact many neighbors who drive by on a daily basis have defended him and said they don’t have a problem with it. And why would they? They probably have a junk pile on their rural properties.

While I think nuisance laws and junk piles inside a city or town are important where there is small lots and density, I don’t think it is a big deal when it comes to the rural areas, and to be quite honest, I think this is just harassment. I encourage him to fight the county in court, but first license your vehicles or junk them.

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Sept 4-5, 2018

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City Council Working Session – 2:30 PM – Sept 4th

They will be discussing budget amendments and ‘Unfunded’ projects

City Council Informational Meeting – 4 PM – Sept 4th

Update on UDC meeting, Subdivision ordinance update, Parks Master Plan study and City Attorney’s budget

Regular City Council Meeting – 7 PM – Sept 4th

Item #1, Approval of Contracts. We still keep polishing the turd called the Pavilion Parking ramp.

Item #3, Selling off 3 transit buses in an online auction.

Item #4, Mecahnic’s lien against the city for not paying contractor for Brown Bear exhibit at the zoo. I guess this was the first time I have heard about this. Hopefully we will get an explanation.

Item #21-22, New beer and wine license for a new establishment in the old Prairie Berry location on 8t street.

Item #23-24, Another Axe Throwing place wanting a beer and wine license. But NO beer with your popcorn at the movie theater.

Item #32, Notice of Change Orders over $25K. This really should be changed to notice change orders starting at zero.

Item #40, LifeScape parking lot. This has been a very controversial debate and I expect a lot of people from the neighborhood opposing the parking lot. It will be interesting to see how the council votes. LifeScape has already bought and removed the houses in the area of the proposed parking lot. So if the deny the lot, what will go there?

Item #41, Street Vacation.

Item #46-47, Dissolving 2 TIFs (see my earlier post)

Item #48, More citizen board appointees.

Item #49, Resolution, denying demolish of homes in a historic district. I expect testimony from the developer who owns these homes or a representative.

Joint Minnehaha County/City Council Meeting – 3 PM – Sept 5th

Joint Budget Hearings for Museums, Libraries and Metro 911

Planning Commission Meeting – 6 PM – Sept 5th

Item #7, Alcohol permit for a Coffee shop. Still trying to figure out why establishments call themselves ‘coffee shops’ but serve beer and wine. Puzzling.

Item #9, Alcohol permit for another telephone booth video lottery casino. Planning staff doesn’t recommend approval or denial, they recommend the commission listens to testimony. It’s interesting because the place is close the Avera Campus. We will see who wins? Video Lottery or the Hospital Industrial Complex? Wonder if the Planning Commission will throw another flaming football to the city council.

Item# 10, oh, and guess who is looking for a rezone in the very next item? Avera.

Item #11, Subdivision ordinance change. This is interesting;

• Add new private streets standards.

• Require a maintenance agreement for the private streets and utilities.

• Define and add standards for flag pole lots.

• Improve pedestrian and bicycle neighborhood connectivity.

• Add standards to reserve new bicycle trail corridors.

• Move some standards to the Preliminary Plan.

• Clarify and make minor changes to the subdivision process.

• Update the plat process to be consistent with state law.

Item #13. 2nd ANNUAL CITIZENS PLANNING ACADEMY. Wonder if they changed their tune about letting the most wealthiest developers in town getting their way?

Did Minnehaha County Commissioner Barth get sidestepped?

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(FF: 31:00) The County Commissioners each are appointed to different departments. One of departments under Barth’s direction is Emergency Management. There has been a behind the scenes movement to move Emergency Management to a different location in which Barth had no knowledge of. Listen to Commissioner Beninga try to dig himself out of a hole.

LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

As you may have saw a few weeks ago, Sioux Falls City Councilor Brekke was troubled about how the council came up with their legislative priorities. Commissioner Barth has also expressed that he wasn’t to happy about the fact that Council Chair Erickson and Commission Chair Heiberger cooked this up together without input from other councilors and commissioners. Seems leadership is going to some people’s heads pretty quick.

Update: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Aug 28, 2018

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Informational Meeting • 4 PM

Minnehaha-Lincoln County Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan presentation. I’m glad to see this. We have been talking about what plans risk management has in case of a major train derailment. And now with the recent amounia leak in the Big Poo by Smithfield’s it’ time we put on our big kid pants on as a city and realize we need to be prepared for a major disaster.

We will also get an update on the Emerald Ash Borer.

Joint Minnehaha County/Council meeting • 5 PM

CANCELLED!