It ain’t over until the fat lady sings while eating her salty snacks from Walmart

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SON-REF-LOGO
As I suspected, the SD Supreme Court upheld the circuit court’s decision to allow the zoning for a 4th Walmart in Sioux Falls;
The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision, allowing the annexation of land into the city which is now slated for a Walmart store.

The appellants are a group of residents near the site calling themselves Save Our Neighborhood. The group has argued that the land annexation was illegal because the city didn’t first get Lincoln County’s approval.

It was a long shot to begin with, but worth it. But this isn’t the end of the fight. Besides the fact that drainage is a serious issue in that neighborhood, as we saw this past week, there was another court filing by the SON group. Shortly after the election, SON filed a suit contesting the misleading ballot language. One of the main complaints was the mention of Walmart in the language. The ballot question was about re-zoning, not about Walmart specifically. The re-zone would allow any kind of large retailer to build there. In fact, as I understand it, Walmart only has a purchase agreement with the Homan family. If Walmart isn’t granted a building permit, they will have no financial obligation to purchase the land.
The city has yet to respond to the ballot language suit, or at least I have not seen anything in the media about it. Since WM won today, I wonder if they will ask the city to issue them a building permit (the only thing WM has left to do). Or will the city respond to the suit first? Of course that would require fairness and common sense from the city attorney’s office.
One can only guess what this Planning Department, Mayor and City Attorney will do, but I can guarantee whatever it is, it won’t be in the best interest of the SON neighborhood or the citizens of Sioux Falls.

 

But there isn’t any drainage issues by the proposed Walmart

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Rain 2

Remember, this photo was taken on June 5th, can’t imagine what it looked like yesterday. There was funding requested to fix drainage at Twin Eagles and Heather Ridge, but never went through. The mayor is always preaching about ‘Bad Neighbors’ while refusing to admit the city is a ‘bad neighbor’ by not fixing the drainage issues on 85th street. The retention pond is NOT working in the area, it is the poorly planned pitch in the road. Wait until they turn a cornfield into a parking lot, watch the water flow then. Maybe they could build the first Walmart to replicate Venice. Pull up in your Gondola and get yourself some cheap goods with your $23 gift card used to buy the election.

Here is the pond today by Twin Eagle

phototwin

The final financial reports are in from the city election

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No big surprises. It looks like Walmart threw in only an additional $33,000 in the last week before the election. Some interesting notes to point out in the candidate races were that Kiley received only ONE individual contributions right before the election, $250 from Cindy Huether. Cindy  also gave $250 to Tex Golfing & Michelle Erpenbach. How convenient that she gave this late in the game, knowing her name wouldn’t appear on a financial report until after the election. I guess she learned well from her sneaky husband.

Mayor Huether also had some interesting contributors. From PAC’s he got $1500 from two separate Unions, Citigroup gave $500, John Morrell’s (Smithfield) gave $1000, and one of the more interesting of his PAC contributors was HDR Engineering, which gave $500. HDR does a boatload of consulting for the city planning office. A very strange donation to Christine Erickson was from Kyle Schoenfish (used to be a Democrat, and is the son of Mayor Huether’s first cousin) who gave $125. Still trying to figure that one out.

Comments to land annexation hearing further proof that some SF voters are extremely misinformed, and kind of stupid

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synsigns

The story about the land annexation SD Supreme Court hearing today in Pierre gathered some interesting FB comments. They mostly speak for themselves, but it seems most don’t even know that this hearing has been pending months before the city election, of course, these people think that when you appeal to the SC they will hear your arguments in a couple of weeks? LOL, sometimes it takes a year. Also, they don’t realize that this is the 3rd time the zoning has been attempted to be changed on the neighbors. This is a property rights issue that could happen in ANY neighborhood in this city. Ask Whittier how the city rolls. This could happen to you next. Are you willing to fight?

“unreal how these morons can waste time and money and the courts time, perhaps we the people can sue them for prohibiting our future”

Yes, because, NOT having a 4th Walmart in Sioux Falls, would ruin our future.

“They wanted the public to vote on it, so it was voted on. People determined that they wanted the Walmart by a large margin. Thanks for continuing to waste taxpayers money. I can’t wait for the SC Justices to deny their appeal, so the store can get underway.”

First off it will take a couple of months before they render an opinion, and secondly, the only one wasting  tax dollars is the city by misleading voters on the issue in advocational sessions and handing over millions in infrastructure upgrades for Walmart. A couple of court cases and an election is a miniscule cost to what we will be ponying up for Walmart.

“one thing about those supposed ‘rich snobs’ that are invading our city, they still don’t think they have to abide by anyone’s rules and laws but their own. sickening and disgusting, and they don’t belong here!”

Are you talking about Walmart? Because I agree 100%

“Think of how many hungry children in our community could have been fed with the amount of money these people have wasted. Get over it you lost, time to move on with life.”

Yes, blame them for the hungry children in our community. Well at least if you get a job at Walmart you will be eligible for food stamps to feed your children.

“For cripes sake, it’s not like a fracking operation is going to be drilling at that location. This matter of annexation and Lincoln County was already decided on.”

Uh, no it hasn’t, that is why it went to the SC.

“Just give the retarded people another useless Walmart. A little city like Sioux Falls really needs a 4th one. Lmao!”

I know people with Down Syndrome that have about 200% more common sense then some of these commenters, you are being to nice.

“Wow Listo, your ignorance is showing by the awful choice of words you displayed in your comment. Do you really think Wal-Mart didn’t conduct market research before they decided to build a new one? The market shows they’re needed, therefore, they will keep building. It’s called supply and demand, but someone as small as you probably can’t comprehend that basic economic principle.”

You are right, Walmart hasn’t defeated every single locally owned retailer yet, so they needed to build this store to get it accomplished. Ask Yankton how their Walmart worked out for them.

“Listo Harbor It’s not only about serving the current size of Sioux Falls, but the growth. The city is growing pretty rapidly, and need the services in place in order to meet the demand from consumers.”

Yeah, we NEED a 4th Walmart like we NEED a hole in our heads. I haven’t shopped at Walmart in years, and if they all left town tomorrow, the community would be fine, and growth would continue. To tell you the truth, we might be BETTER OFF without them sucking our tax dollars and paying low wages.

“I moved to the east side of town and have been going to the Walmart over here. I noticed most of the things buy on a regular basis has gone up one dollar. Ive noticed some thing advertised on sale that are actually a dollar higher.”

Walmart using trickery in their advertising?! Get the F’ck outta here! If you had half a brain, you would realize that Walmart’s prices are not much different then other retailers.

“Such a waste of the Justice’s time.”

Yes, because who cares about zoning and annexation laws? We should just get rid of those laws all together so I can build a shooting range  and lion’s den in my backyard.

“This is absolutely absurd that people can act like this. If you don’t like what is going in your neighborhood move! Good riddance!”

They were there first, this is the THIRD time the zoning has been changed since 75% have built their homes. IMO, if Walmart doesn’t like the neighbors wishes, they can build elsewhere.

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