Some ‘details’ about the proposed Family Park are being uncovered in this Gargoyle Leader story. Stuff that we suspected all along. What is strange about the story, is how it starts, assuming the city council has already approved the gift from the Soukup family. This is not the case (even though it does have the support of at least 7 councilors);
A new park being developed in western Sioux Falls will be unique to the region by offering trout fishing, city and state officials say.
Eventually, that area could be the site of a residential development, complete with a lake and 100 to 150 houses. That’s at least five years into the future, Soukup said.
Chip Kolb of Tall Prairie Properties owns the land to the immediate east of what will be Family Park.
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“I was thinking apartments along the lake,” Kolb said of his development, which he categorized as in its early stages.
So Sioux Falls taxpayers will have to pay for the maintenance of a park so homeowners and apartment dwellers have lakeside property? How much access will the rest of us have to the park if it is surrounded by apartments and houses? I’m not against accepting the gift, but I think the developers and the city should be in a 50/50 partnership for the maintenance of the park. Once again, this suspiciously looks like developers are getting a gigantic handout from taxpayers. Not only are they taking the massive chunk of land off the taxrolls, the developers will be building homes on prime property that will be maintained by the rest of us working stiffs instead of a housing association.
There is something very fishy smelling about this whole deal.