City brings forward new timeline to approve Falls Park master plan

Years in development, an updated master plan for Falls Park now is scheduled to be approved early next year.

The process began in 2021 and represents the first new master plan for the area since 1992. The Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department held a design competition to develop comprehensive ideas to address the future of the area. Confluence, a landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm, was awarded the design contract.

Goals included:

• Create a year-round destination.
• Preserve and enhance the heart of the park.
• Improve circulation and safety.
• Expand recreational opportunities.
• Embrace full-season programming.
• Seek out partnership opportunities.
• Improve water quality, and incorporate environmentally friendly designs.
• Preserve historical elements, and develop only in appropriate areas.

The broad vision is to create a signature destination park, said Jon Jacobson, senior principal at Confluence.

Those kinds of parks typically are actively programmed, he said.

“It has a higher level of services than a typical park. It’s managed and funded through … public-private partnerships, and it’s a primary destination for local folks and anybody who comes into our community.”

The proposed plan likely would take decades to fully achieve and addresses essentially every area of the downtown park.

Broad goals include defining the heart of the park as a place that reduces “intrusion of vehicles,” Jacobson said. “There’s some roadways and parking lots that are currently there that are not in this place.”

The idea is to “pull that traffic out of the center of the park and incorporate it on the edges.”

That would create an improved experience at Winter Wonderland, for example, which “can be very automobile-dominated” and could benefit from more pedestrian access, Jacobson said.

Public feedback often focused on wanting to be part of nature, the falls and green space, he added.

“When you’ve got a car 12 feet away from the falls, it takes away some of that fun.”

Other areas identified for improvements include the longtime quarry, which is envisioned as becoming an urban fishery that would serve visitors and the nearby Whittier neighborhood. It’s on the east side of Weber Avenue.

It also could host an adventure course with ropes or other obstacles.

The area that serves the Falls Park Farmers Market also is envisioned for expansion and an improved layout.

“On a typical Saturday, it can get pretty congested,” Jacobson said. “This plan incorporates a new perimeter road around the outside of the farmers market, completely upgrades and redoes the parking layout.”

It’s also the area envisioned for partnering on an expansion of the Stockyards Ag Experience.

Once the observation tower outlives its useful life, “that would be relocated near the falls overlook right now to provide kind of a one-stop shop for visitors,” Jacobson said, adding with that layout, a bus could pull up, and visitors could see everything together.

The master plan’s identified priorities for programs include special events, travel and tourism, senior programs, outdoor adventure and fishing programs.

Priorities for investment include walking and hiking trail expansion, natural areas, indoor play, an adventure course and fishing, picnic shelters, off-leash dog areas, sledding and single-track paths.

Signature parks typically are funded with a combination of tax dollars, admission and rentals such as skate rental at Jacobson Plaza, concessions, sponsorships, donations and grants.

A public open house to collect final feedback is scheduled for Jan. 14, followed by a vote of the Parks and Recreation Board on Jan. 21 and a Sioux Falls City Council vote on Feb. 3.

Some hurdles to approval might still exist, however. Council member Curt Soehl questioned why no cost estimates were included with the plan.

“I won’t vote for this plan without seeing the dollars,” he said.

The plan is intended to be a 30-year vision, meaning any overall costs identified today would not be accurate, park development manager Mike Patten said.

“These sorts of grand visions take time,” he said.