Walfart

Slowing the Walmart Train

l3wis June 19, 2013 12Comments

At last night’s city council meeting, the council approved an amendment by Kermit Staggers to move the 2nd reading of the Walmart development to July 16, then a substitute motion was made to move it to August 6 (Erpenbach had some picnic or something to attend on July 16 so she wanted it moved). Sorry Walmart for the delay 🙁 The reason why Staggers asked for extra time is so the council and the SON group could review the traffic study. Jamison also wanted to use the time to study an alternative to Walmart at that development site;

“This is where it starts to get real, and I think we’ve got to come up with a better plan a better transition to this neighborhood and I’ll work hard to find a better alternative to that plan,” said councilor Greg Jamison before the vote to delay the second reading.

I know when I walked out of the council meeting last night, the developer who is attempting to broker the land deal didn’t look too happy, but of course he never does.

I addressed the council about representational government, residents (taxpayers/voters) and small business in Sioux Falls, and told them the reason they are asked to vote on this project, even though Walmart may have a legal right to be there, is because they need to represent their constituents, not Walmart.

Southside Walmart proposal. Who is the chicken & Who is the egg? And who came first?

l3wis June 10, 2013 38Comments

After watching last week’s city council and planning meetings, I started to wonder about ‘the green dot’ discussion. We have to remember the 69th & Cliff Walmart site was voted down, the city had a meeting with Walmart staff and sent them to 85th & Minnesota because of the land use designation on the 2035 plan and the “green dot.”

I was able to get 3 maps from the ‘Save our Neighborhood’ group that are not available on the city’s website.

The first map would be the orange multi-family residential designation on Twin Eagle. The reason this is important is the city intended that area to be a transition zone from single family residential to commercial at 85th & Minnesota.

The second map shows all of the single family NOT multi-family residential homes that ended up being built before 12-7-2009. I have since learned that all but 12 were there before that date.

Why is that important?

The third map answers that question, the green dot on 85th & Minnesota was decided on that date when that intersection became a sub-regional employment center. The problem is that with the new WM proposal that doesn’t leave enough room to properly transition from single family residential to the highest commercial use allowed in the city of Sioux Falls, C-4 commercial.

This will hopefully start to answer the “what were people thinking” question and the “what did they expect would be at that intersection?” question. The green dot didn’t exist until 12-7-2009 when almost all of the current homes out there had already been built. We would expect either a neighborhood or community employment center like 57th & Western, 69th and Minnesota, or even like 57th & Cliff, but not like 41st and Louise which is being proposed.

The city clearly made a mistake in 2009. They also made a mistake removing the citizen input from the conditional use process on Shape Places and now they are gearing up a misinformation campaign against that neighborhood (something the city directors are very good at). Except this time they have a planning staff that is clearly bitter over Shape Places being revoked and a city attorney that either doesn’t know what he is talking about, or is twisting the zoning rules to fit Walmart’s agenda. The problem the city has this time is that they are not going up against an army of retired people who want snowgates or outdoor pools. They are fighting a group that consists of several lawyers and professionals that have done their research and are prepared to fight this until the end.

So what came first? The Residents or Walmart? I think we know the very clear answer.