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SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, May 25-26, 2021

l3wis 1Comments

NOTE: The City Council has a very busy agenda over 2 days. They will be discussing some very important issues.

City Council Working Session • 2 PM • Tuesday May 25

Council will be discussing Medical Cannabis (I really wish this working session was on a day with not a full agenda and after 5 PM so people could attend and speak out, but they are not real keen on transparency 🙂

Informational Meeting • 4 PM • Tuesday May 25

City April financials

Minnehaha County/City Council joint meeting • 5 PM • Tuesday May 25

Private airport conditional use permit (I am still on the fence about this, but also believe that we seem to have so much wealth in Sioux Falls, the upper crust needs to build themselves their own private airport. I flew commercial last week, it wasn’t so bad).

Lincoln County/City Council joint meeting • 7 PM • Tuesday May 25

Zoning issues, two items

City Council Working Session • 10:30 AM • Wednesday May 26

Discussing appropriations for Covid Supplements (another prime example of a meeting that should be after 5 PM. Wouldn’t regular folks like to weigh in on this, kind of hard on a Wednesday morning when they are all at work. You do realize, this shows just how little they care about our opinion).

Affordable Housing Alex Jensen Christine Erickson Count-cilor Alex Jensen Developers Development SF City Council Sioux Falls

Erickson & Jensen want to talk to you about housing, if you can make it

l3wis 4Comments

The only problem is you will have to be late for work to have that conversation with them;

Public Invited to Discuss Strategies to Expand Homeownership in Sioux Falls 
Councilors Alex Jensen and Christine Erickson will hear from citizens on how the city can make homeownership more accessible in Sioux Falls. Ideas gained from this outreach effort could be used for future legislative efforts intended to tackle the lack of homeownership opportunities. 
When: Thursday, May 20th 
Where: HyVee at 37th and Minnesota 
Time: 7:30am to 9:00am 


I have often noticed that if city councilors really want to hear from constituents they have these kind of meetings on a Saturday or after 5 PM. The Vice-CountCilor and Errackticson have ZERO interest in talking to constituents about these issues, that is why they are doing it on a Thursday morning when most working class stiffs are at work. Jensen even said in the meeting yesterday something like, “We would like to discuss these ideas with developers and contractors, oh, and I guess the public can come to.” You can’t make this stuff up, even if you tried.

Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

Cherapa Developers ask for ludicrous $25 million dollar TIF for luxury retail, office and housing

l3wis 12Comments

I have never seen so much groveling in my life at the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting, and it wasn’t from the developer of this project, it was from the city councilors supporting this, almost falling over each other to thank, yes, thank, the developer for asking for this tax break.

This isn’t about affordable housing or blight, it is what it is, developer welfare while raising taxes on the rest of us. And while the developer and councilors talked about the economic impact, there still has yet to be an independent study proving TIFs work in Sioux Falls, or provide any impact to the rest of us paying higher taxes to supplement their whims. The reason why? Because they know the answer.

The Bancorp Inc. will anchor the next phase of the development, bringing its 175 employees downtown and serving as the catalyst for Cherapa’s envisioned mix of retail, luxury condominiums, additional office, parking and community gathering and event space.

The planned Cherapa development will require support from the city of Sioux Falls, including $25 million in tax increment financing for the construction of the parking and related infrastructure, such as the extension of Reid Street. The city also is assisting in helping create a quiet zone around the rail line.

I actually got a good laugh at the beginning of the developer’s TIFilicious presentation when he talked about how the city’s accomplishment in removing rail travel from Downtown. LOL. Not only is it still there, running along this development, it has gotten more intense in the neighborhoods less then a mile south of it.

The lack of leadership, economic ignorance, little historic knowledge of TIF’s and this incredibly huge hand-out to wealthy developers on this project shows just how out of touch this mayor and city council is with the real needs of our community. I keep going back to just imaging how much of our core neighborhoods we could clean up with $25 million dollars but instead our council has turned into corporate socialists who don’t even want to do their homework on TIFs.

The saddest part is that this project, Flopdation Park and the Sioux Steel project could all develop 100% with private investment and pay their full property taxes on day one, and they all know it. But hey, they got it covered, the rest of us working stiffs will pick up the slack for these destitute folks and the city council will gladly oblige, because that’s just what they do. What a bunch of goofs.

Alex Jensen Count-cilor Alex Jensen Curt Soehl SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Councilor Soehl gets elected Council Chair and Jensen Vice-Chair

l3wis 5Comments

Soehl didn’t even bother to show up tonight and got elected Chair (he was vice-chair). While Jensen hasn’t even been there a year, he got elected vice-chair, even though Brekke or Starr deserved the position. This was obviously political and partisan. Brekke and Starr tend to question the other councilors and administration and probably the reason they were not nominated. I don’t think Starr was interested but I think Brekke did want to be vice-chair. Further proof in this town and city government it is who you know, not what you know. Erickson got elected to operations committee even though she is done in about a year. Probably one of the most pathetic council chair elections I have ever seen, but certainly not shocking.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, May 11, 2021 & the $449K Convention Center Door

l3wis 3Comments

Informational Meeting • 4 PM

Presentations on Curbside pickup and Sioux Steel TIF;

Not sure what the garbage presentation is about, but it looks like the garbage haulers are not happy about the changes. You know, if you would have just gave discounts it may not have changed back. But guess what, sometimes being greedy sucks. I don’t have a problem with putting the can at the end of the driveway on pickup day, but why not just offer a discount to customers who do it? Oh, that’s right, that greed thing again.

There is also an update on the TIF for Sioux Steel. As I understand it the original TIF will be rescinded and after changes to the project (not sure what they will be) the TIF will be re-instated. I think the council should send a message and rescind the original TIF and not give them one. We don’t need more office space or hotels downtown, we need affordable housing. If the developer was willing to turn the project into a work force housing development, I think the TIF would be fine.

Regular Meeting • 6 PM

Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #10;

Software Platform, Mass Transit On-Demand Pilot Project; amendment to introduce a second “Pilot Program” of “SAM on Demand” This pilot project will test to see if on-demand service will improve ridership, Pantonium, Inc. $36K. (I’m wondering if the public is going to get an update about how they continue to milk this bad idea).

Sub Item #11, Convention Center Improvements – Convention Center Vestibule Door Replacement; Sunkota Construction, Inc., $449K (While the mayor bragged about giving a whopping $1 Million in rental assistance last year, he failed to tell folks he plans to spend almost a Half-Million on a door. To be fair, it’s probably a couple of doors. Wouldn’t spending that money on actually marketing Sioux Falls for conventions be better spent)?

Sub Item #12, Greenway and Trail Improvements – Downtown River Greenway Improvements – Phase 3; Agreement for final design, Confluence, $797K (so it costs less to build a door than it does to design a sidewalk. Hmmm).

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