Downtown Sioux Falls

Parking Rate hikes just don’t add up

l3wis October 29, 2015 6Comments

The more I think about this proposal, the more I question this increase;

“Our system is more than 90 percent full. It will be 100 percent full most likely in the next two years before we can open a new parking ramp,” said Darrin Smith, Sioux Falls Community Development Director.

Projects like the new ramp cost money. That’s why the city is proposing a rate change in Downtown Sioux Falls.

WOW! Where do we begin?

• We tear down a parking ramp that was useful and sell it for $1.

• We are going to be 100% full in two years yet the parking ramp the city is paying for is for a private hotel and apartments, with only about 3-5% useable by the public.

• The city will be leasing the parking ramp to these private entities. Shouldn’t that lease payment cover the bond payments? If not, why not? What is the benefit to the public to build a private parking ramp that the public can’t use most of the time and make us take care of the short fall on the bond payments?

This whole thing stinks to high Heaven, and I hope the council removes their heads from their asses and votes this increase down and demands the parking department adjust the lease payments to cover the bonds, or better yet, make the PRIVATE development build their own damn parking ramp. Let free enterprise work for itself, otherwise it’s just parking socialism. Maybe we should call it ‘Obama-park’?

Property Tax relief in Sioux Falls only for the Rich & Connected

l3wis September 9, 2015 8Comments

While Minnehaha County is bracing for a property tax opt-out and the SF city council recently increased property taxes to most properties in Sioux Falls, with the stroke of a few votes the city council gave a 12 year, $2.9 million dollar property tax rebate for some condos;

The $30-million, mixed-use Washington Square project planned for Main Avenue has been granted a TIF by the City of Sioux Falls.

The city council approved a $2.9-million tax increment financing district for the project. The property tax revenue will be used to pay the TIF over a 10 to 12 year period.

But hey, we get to use their parking for free, only on nights and weekends though (you know, when it is free in all other spots DT also). Once again, the ones with the biggest wallets get the biggest rewards in Sioux Falls, while the rest of us working stiff homeowners have to scrape up the crumbs that fall from the 4th floor condos.