New community planning process aims to set vision for coming decade

A plan being developed over the next several months will cast a vision for the next 10 years for how to improve quality of life in Sioux Falls.

The Vision Sioux Falls plan is meant to build on previous community planning efforts that led to the creation of the Washington Pavilion, River Greenway and Denny Sanford Premier Center.

“Ultimately, the feedback that we obtain will provide us ideas to formulate a blueprint for really moving Sioux Falls forward and capitalizing on the momentum we have,” said Mike Lynch, executive director of Forward Sioux Falls and the project manager.

The plan will include the following focus areas:

• Education, training and workforce.
• Entertainment, recreation and leisure.
• Health and human services.
• Housing.
• Public safety.
• City image and marketing.

The group is working with Omaha consulting firm RDG Planning & Design to administer the planning process.

Forward Sioux Falls, which is a community partnership between the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, is funding the effort as part of its current five-year plan.

“We didn’t initially intend to start this until 2023, maybe even heading into 2024, but we felt like with … what we’re seeing in terms of population and economic growth that we wanted to move this plan ahead a year,” Lynch said.

It also complements current long-range plans being done for downtown Sioux Falls, Falls Park and the city’s aquatics system, he added.

Vision Sioux Falls is being led by a steering committee of representatives for the city of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls School District, Chamber of Commerce, Development Foundation, Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation and Sioux Empire United Way.

“We want this to be as ecumenical as possible, involving every corner, every population of the city,” Lynch said.

Give your input

For the next several months, the effort will involve a lot of listening – in small groups of stakeholders, one-on-one interviews and larger public input efforts.

“We really want to begin to refine those focus areas,” Lynch said. “There will be pop-up events being held in schools, in grocery stores, on the bike trail and other opportunities we identify through our steering committee that will be good opportunities to engage the public.”

Anyone also can take this five-minute survey to give input.

It asks for input in areas such as transportation, community image, housing, economic development, parks and city services. It will stay up until the second week in December. The project website also will be updated throughout the process, and it includes an interactive map, allowing anyone to drop a virtual pin and offer suggestions for specific locations.

Additional groups — a Strategic Council and a Community Allies Committee — are being formed with the goal of maximizing reach within the community, especially to underrepresented populations.

“It’s a broad-based group that includes representatives from a wide base of perspectives,” Lynch said. “The objective here is to make sure they serve as a bridge to conversations.”

Next steps

Input will continue to be gathered into early next year. The hope is to have a plan, with action items and those tasked with completing them, by sometime in the spring.

“Sioux Falls has been so good historically at forward-thinking,” Lynch said. “We want to make sure and be able to maximize all the thoughts that residents have, so we can put those ideas to the best use.”