By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – When the joint planning commissions for Minnehaha County and the City of Sioux Falls gathered on Monday, Feb. 22, they deadlocked on their only agenda item, a residential airpark to be located a mile west of the current Sioux Falls city limits.
While members of the county planning board voted unanimously to approve it, the city planning board voted 5-2 against it, meaning it goes with “no recommendation” to the joint meeting of Sioux Falls/Minnehaha County next Tuesday, March 23, at 5 p.m.
Whether it had passed at the February meeting or not, the conditional use permit would always have gone before the joint session with either a recommendation of “approve,” “deny” or “no recommendation.”
The conditional use permit applied to land between County Highway 148 and 268th St. These are extensions of 41st and 57th Streets in Sioux Falls
Since the land that the new development would be in falls within the “joint jurisdiction” area of three miles outside of Sioux Falls, both the County Commission and the City council must agree to it.
In 2013, the county authorized a private airstrip at that location for Tom Monnin, but he and his partner in Aeroprops LLC, Todd Broin, are making plans to develop that area into what a residential airpark where homes could be developed for, mainly, people with private planes.
Former Sioux Falls City Council member Greg Jamison, who is a current member of the South Dakota House of Representatives and a Sioux Falls realtor, spoke as a representative for the project, comparing it to a future version of golfers wanting to own a home by a country club, and boaters wanting to live on a lake.
Whether discussing golf carts, boats and ramps, or planes, people like to park those things “in their own backyards,” Jamison said.
The proposed development would call for a paved runway to be put in, as well as two other turf runways which could be used in adverse wind conditions.
Getting approval for that expansion was the first step for Aeroprops, the residential development would be platted out sometime in the future.
Other that those bringing the issue, the two property owners most affected both spoke in favor of the project, as did two others, one being a retired civil engineer.
Of the three that spoke against it, two lived nearby and the third was a real estate developer, who said he was concerned about restrictions for people getting FHA and South Dakota Housing loans.
However, from the materials presented by the developers, it didn’t seem like anyone wanting to build at or near that location would be concerned about those types of loans.
Landowner Monnin explained that there are 630 of these types of residential airparks currently in the United States.
He also said that the FAA does not do noise studies of general aviation airports since noise levels from nearby traffic is usually much louder than what would register at the airport, alone.
Although most of the members of the Sioux Falls Planning Commission did not state their reason for the way they voted, one who did, Kurt Johnson, talked about his years in banking and referred to the issue of loans, saying that there are always alternatives to FHA loans.
Johnson was one of two from the Sioux Falls commission voting for the permit.
As mentioned earlier, the matter now goes to the monthly joint Sioux Falls/Minnehaha County meeting on Tuesday, March 23, at 5 p.m. in the Carnegie Town Hall at 10th St. and Main Ave., downtown Sioux Falls.
At that meeting, people in the public can speak on the airport or other matters.
