We will pull all the stops for Walmart, not so much for little property owner;
The residents of Prairie Meadows subdivision get many of the benefits of living near Sioux Falls.
They drive the streets, their kids go to Sioux Falls schools and they have city sewer service.
But the 75 homes in the subdivision near 41st Street and Tea-Ellis Road aren’t in the city. Technically, they’re in Wayne Township.
“They should be part of Sioux Falls,†said Jeff Schmitt, head of planning and zoning for the city.
If that happens — and the 89-acre area has been the subject of annexation talks for years — residents could pay $25,000 per lot for improvements to streets and utilities.
Not sure what to think of this, but when the city/state is willing to put millions into infrastructure/traffic upgrades for Walmart then turn around and charge thousands for the same thing, makes you wonder a bit.
Boy have you ever got this backward. The Prairie Meadows developer (and yes- there was a developer of that subdivision) was out to save the expense of proper street design and construction – outside the city limits (not annexed into the city – not paying any city tax dollars). By doing that, he could offer the lots really cheaply – and sell ’em off really quick. Take the money and run, leaving the cost of competing the development to the individual “little guy” lot owners – who (BTW) were also looking for the cheap way out.
The WM property owners FIRST annexed the property into the city – thus assuring that design development would be done up front – and that the property would be contributing tax $$ to the city. In addition, the “millions and millions” of state and city investment into infrastructure on S Minnesota/Hwy 100 was planned YEARS – might I say more than a DECADE before WM became involved in ANY way. That isn’t being built FOR WM – it is for everyone/anyone that uses it.
Meanwhile, the rebuilding of the streets in Prairie Meadows will be FOR the residents of that subdivision – almost NO ONE else will use it.
It’s like anything else DL – you get what you pay for.
Ruf, I don’t think they shouldn’t have to pay ‘something’ I just think the city likes to wield a big bad sword when it comes to the little guy, then turns around and hands out big benefits to the big guy (TIFs come to mind).
I have a coworker in this development. They were offered annexation with little cost out of their pockets for the infrastructure. They passed. The development around them began and they were again offered annexation , they passed. Each time they said they didn’t want to pay city taxes or adhere to city permitting. Now they’re choking on gravel dust and local traffic to/from 41st is eating up their road.
F@*K EM They had their chance.
If they want an upgrade – they get t pay for it.
Who was the developer?
Some move outside city limits to get away from the corruption. They should hold out and eventually be annexed into Tea or Harrisburg. Both are patriotic cities with a democratic form of government. Either focuses on infrastructure and safety rather than profit to developers who build event centers and indoor sports.
pathloss – you don’t have a clue where this is – do you? Tea – or Harrisburg? State law mandates that annexed areas be contiguous to the city – no hopscotching. If they were to “holdout” for Tea/Harrisburg -the costs would 10X being annexed into SF – all that piping and pumping.
I agree with LJL – they’ve had several chances in the past and passed on them. The whole anti-urbanization movement is NOT SMART. Driven purely by emotion – mainly selfishness and greed.
I like this solution to the problem of anti-urbanization crowd: link.
First of all I want to say that I have lived in the subdivision for over 12 years. Annexation has never been mentioned as being free or no cost. The cost of annexation is so high that it will put a number of us in debt so much that it will be unaffordable. So please check your facts before posting. I am not sure who this co-worker was but you now have heard it from someone there that is living through this and the possibility of having to go so far into debt that many of us will not be able to recoup the cost through a sale and/or take a long time to pay off. Also I am not sure where the 25k cost came from but I was quoted triple that cost for annexation. The homes in this area are NOT on the Sioux Falls sewer system. It is however processed by the city. We end up paying for that through our sewer district, which is at a much higher rate then city rates. water is currently served up through dell rapids. One of the excuses the costs are so high is that the city says the current facilities need to be ripped out and reinstalled for city facilities.
Again before posting please understand the facts and the situation.