Will the City of Sioux Falls & Lincoln County work together to get the 85th Interchange completed sooner rather than later?

As I told a couple of journalists the other night, I could give a flying monkey circus whether the project gets done or not in 2016. We need another retail park area in the Sioux Falls like we need (figurative) holes in our heads.

But there are some hurdles.

The benefits of the city annexing this land with the project proponent’s timeline could mean millions in sales tax revenue. The bad part is we have to pay for the infrastructure upgrades. A city official said to me the other day;

“So does the state want Sioux Falls to build infrastructure at the new proposed Foundation Park or at this project?”

He made the assumption that the city doesn’t have the money to do both projects at once and that is why the timeline for annexation was extended by the city. I guess that is understandable, but I am a bit skeptical, especially when you have Erica Beck from the Lloyd Companies stating that the 2018 timeline change to 2020 literally in a couple of days. Makes you wonder?

There is also a deep distrust of another CID in South Dakota. Dakota Dunes has been nothing but a pain in the ass of state and federal taxpayers. A bunch rich folk tax dodgers set up a community on a river bottom that is infamous for flooding . . . A LOT! Then they come running to the taxpayers and the National Guard to bail their asses out. I guess they want all the benefits of being a responsible taxpayer, they just don’t want to pay for it. I still think that FEMA and the National Guard should have sent them all a bill.

This brings us to a similar issue at this location. Though the environmental studies still have to be conducted, the same city official I talked to said there may be issues with ground water and low lying land. Which can be solved – WITH A LOT OF FREAKING DIRT!

Now let’s talk about the ‘political’ aspects of the project. First off, we know the GOED office and The Mayor’s office are not exactly a ‘winning team’. After Foundation Park was announced a different city official said to me;

“Foundation Park is getting done IN SPITE of Mayor Huether”

In other words, the state really had to reign him in, or basically leave him out of the process. Don’t know how much of that is true, because I find city and state officials bickering to be useless pitter patter, but if you are expecting the state, the county and the city to get all on the same page and timeline on this matter, well, you are a dreamer. But hey, isn’t our Mayor’s motto, “Sioux Falls, we are getting things done!” (as long as I can take credit for it).

Then there is the developer side of this story. They could care less who gets credit as long as they are rolling in the dough, the problem is, there are more than one big wheel in town, and a couple of those wheels were NOT at the meeting on Tuesday. Of course the Big ‘L’ made an appearance, but I didn’t see anyone from Bender or RMB. Maybe they were helping the proposed Southside move dirt or something. It is no secret that some people in power with the city have made investments with some of these big wheels, and it seems some of these projects get on a fast track quicker than others. Quinky-Dink? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

So there you have it, questionable land, questionable funding, questionable politicians and developers and all kinds of ethical and priority issues. If this gets done by the end of 2016 (as a county/city partnership) it will be nothing short of a miracle, but hey stranger things have happened, we got a new Events Center built in record timing (just watch for the falling siding).