By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – While there were only three items on the regular Minnehaha County Commission agenda on Tuesday, June 28, they still took up almost an hour of time in discussion.
An effort to rezone ended up passing in a 3-1 split, a public nuisance declaration was put off for a month, and a 5% increase in building fees was approved.
The rezoning was to change 35 acres of A1 agricultural land to an RR (rural residential) zoning. The land in question is next to an existing mobile home park just west of the Baltic exit off I-29.
The entity seeking the change, Northeast Investments LLC, owns an existing mobile home park next to the land to be rezoned, and they are planning to expand that park.
Although they needed the land rezoned to move ahead, after that, they would still need to apply for and receive a conditional use permit to proceed with the project.
However, getting the zoning changes was not easy, as the four commissioners present all had reservations about the project.
Specifically, they were worried about two main issues: drainage and entrances.
The current trailer park fits the idea of a “non-conforming use” for that area, but Mason Steffen from the Planning and Zoning Department explained that it had been grandfathered in, since it existed before the Minnehaha County Zoning Ordinance was adopted in the 1980s.
That park only has one entrance going into it, which runs off Highway 114. Any addition may only have one entrance as well. That would just be to the west, also along Highway 114.
A representative for Northeast Investments said they were hoping to purchase additional land to put another access road onto 471st Street, but that transaction had not yet been completed.
Because of their lack of a plan, commission vice-chair Jean Bender said she couldn’t support it (Chairperson Cindy Heiberger was not in attendance) and voted against the motion to rezone.
But Commissioners Jeff Barth, Gerald Beninga and Dean Karsky, who all had some of the same concerns, voted to rezone the land, all citing the county’s extreme need for affordable housing, especially in that area.
The motion to rezone passed on a 3-1 vote, but it was emphasized that plans needed to be shorn up much more before a conditional use permit would be authorized.
A nuisance?
In a return visit before the commission, Keith Dement of 25735 459th Ave, 1.5 miles northeast of Humboldt, was again served with a notice that his property would be declared a public nuisance.
Last fall, Dement was ordered to remove a dilapidated grain bin from his property, which he still had not done.
Giving him one more chance, commissioners unanimously voted to defer action on the matter until Aug. 2, at which time they were clear that if the bin wasn’t removed, they would be declaring the property a public nuisance and the county would clean up the lot and bill Dement.
Increased fees
Finally, to offset costs of implementing the No# 2021 International Building Code, building permit fees were increased a flat 5% in all categories.
Kevin Hoekman of Planning and Zoning said the increases could generate an additional $7,800 in revenue for the county.
The change in fees will go into effect in October of this year.
This meeting also took place in Carnegie Town Hall at the corner of 10th and Main in downtown Sioux Falls. One more meeting was also planned for this location on July 5.
It is hoped that starting on Tuesday, July 19, meetings will be moved back to the Minnehaha County Administration Building and be held in their new third floor commission meeting room.
