Photo; Sioux Falls Business Journal
Last night during the discussion on selling the parking lot downtown, something interesting came up. Councilors were concerned that someone wanted to buy the parking lot just to convert into a private parking lot and wanted to make sure there was enough parking if housing was built there and compared it to the One 2 building next to Ace Hardware downtown (the city sold the lot for a song). In the discussion it was revealed that instead of retail on the main floor of the building it is actually now 2 levels of parking (basement, 1st floor) and in making this decision they decided to add 2 floors of apartments to the building. Now, no big deal, development plans change, but it never got re-approved by the council. Which tells me an un-elected city employee made the decision and was likely backed up by the mayor’s office.
TIFs MAY BE A THING OF THE PAST IF THE SD STATE LEGISLATURE HAS THEIR WAY
During the working session yesterday the council discussed the legislative proposals for the 2026 session and their desire to change TIF applications;
• 50% of property needs to be blighted
• TIF must also get County approval (I would also suggest school board approval since they are the most impacted – remember COSTCO refused a TIF because of school funding)
• No grants can be approved with TIF
• Any TIF over $10 million must be approved by voters in a special election
I think these are all a good start, but I would suggest one quick fix; eliminate all TIFs except for community infrastructure like water and sewer services or fire stations.
TIFs have almost NO ROI unless used to fix a community problem like blight and infrastructure needs.
At the end of the discussion Rich Merkouris asked the city attorney ‘How many TIFs in Sioux Falls were granted for just blighted areas?’ Of course, Fiddle gave his normal answer, ‘I will get back to you.’ I might dig around on it this week and see for myself. If I had to guess we have probably only put out 20% of TIFs for blighted areas.