Citizens speak out about hospital expansion, but is City Hall listening
l3wis I watched the Sioux Falls city council meeting in which several residents from the Sanford Rezoning neighborhood spoke out against the rezoning, mainly because they were not sure if all the residents were properly notified. Councilor Staggers suggested that Sanford should notify every single resident and have written proof they understand and approve of the rezoning before passage. Sounded pretty reasonable to me. But in typical beauracratic fashion, city planner Mike Cooper thought it would be easy to move forward as planned then if the residents wanted to change back he would help them out for FREE. Once again inefficiency won. What surprised me the most was that it passed at all. Two other councilors seemed to agree with Staggers during the discussion (Brown and Anderson) and Munson reminded them that it would take 5 votes to pass. Litz could not vote because he lived within 300 feet of the zoning area and Knudson was absent. Well guess what, Staggers was the only one to vote it down, so it passed. What makes this more disappointing was the citizens WERE NOT represented that night, the hospital was and if voted down it would have been a mere inconvenience for Sanford and would not have affected operations whatsoever. But the council decided to inconveniece 27 residents instead of the hospital, essentially turning their backs on the people who elect them. It was a pretty pathetic scene.
