TenHaken talks downtown development, housing, other priorities for second term

The tornado watch was issued as the polls were closing on the night of the most recent city election.

As Mayor Paul TenHaken waited to see if voters would award him a second term, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the irony.

“I’m like, this would just be the icing on the cake to have a tornado somewhere in the region on the night of the election,” he said.

That never materialized, but a term that included one of the city’s most devastating tornadoes — actually three that night in 2019 — a damaging ice storm and flood and, of course, a multiyear pandemic wouldn’t end without one more natural disaster.

Photo by Tea Storm Chasers

In the closing days leading up to Tuesday’s swearing-in, TenHaken once again was in emergency response mode, activating the emergency operations center, or EOC, following a derecho, or windstorm and a day that brought tornadoes elsewhere in the region.

“I think we’ve stood up an EOC four or five times, so at this point we’re really comfortable with our EOC operations, planning and logistics and communications and how it all works, so when this derecho came through and we stood up an EOC the next day, the fear and nervousness and anxiety was way lower,” he said. “Because I’ve been through this and know how great the team is.”

In many ways, that captures the contrast he felt at Tuesday’s swearing-in. He looks back at the photo of the first one four years ago, and “I’m smiling and my hand is on the Bible, but there was an incredible amount of trepidation and nervousness under that suit,” he said.

Paul TenHaken is sworn in as mayor in 2018. Photo courtesy of the city of Sioux Falls.

“I wasn’t in public office. I was extremely green, just to be candid, going into my first term. Not that I wasn’t comfortable leading people and developing teams, but some of the blocking and tackling and how we’d have to grow the city was something I learned on the job through the years and learned through some difficult circumstances.”

Looking ahead, “I just have such a different degree of confidence, comfort level, excitement for where we’re headed,” TenHaken said. “The level of optimism with almost everyone I talk to is at an all-time high.”

Paul TenHaken is sworn in May 17, 2022, for his second term. Photo courtesy of the city of Sioux Falls.

In the past four years, his city department head leadership team has changed considerably. There are new police and fire chiefs, new faces leading public health, planning and innovation. He has a new finance director and city attorney.

“So I spent four years building that team, and now for the next four years, we’ve got the team together, and I think we can do a lot.”

Setting priorities

Priority No. 1 for TenHaken’s term is one the market essentially has set for him: managing the unprecedented growth occurring in Sioux Falls.

“We’re growing at a record pace right now,” he said.

“That’s exciting, but it also is putting a strain on the limited resources we have to deal with that growth as a very low-tax city and low-tax state, to accommodate the infrastructure and the staffing and the housing needs. So put overtop of this crazy economic uncertainty, I think just maneuvering the next 24 months with record growth and the economic forecast, which no one really seems to know what it’s going to look like, is going to be job No. 1.”

He expects the pace of growth to slow but not return to pre-pandemic levels, he said.

“It’s different issues, challenges, opportunities with post-pandemic leadership and how do you lead out of this properly to make sure we provide the resources residents need while trying to keep up with the many demands being put on city resources.”

The top issue is housing, he said.

“Everyone wants to know what are we doing about housing, and I can tell you it’s just so challenging right now, with land costs and with attitudes about infill development,” TenHaken said. “If we can move two or three houses or create small programs to give developers a little bit of cost savings, we’re just hitting singles. There’s no home runs to be found.”

He is encouraged by efforts to add justice-impact or felon-friendly housing, he added. Minnehaha County announced today that it’s one of four recipients of a $775,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation to improve access to housing for those impacted by the criminal justice system.

“The housing opportunities for these men and women are so incredibly limited. We’re keeping them out of our workforce and making life challenging for them, so that’s an area I hope to see momentum on.”

In addition, “I hope to keep our crime per capita number steady,” TenHaken added. “So that’s going to require continued investment in our cops and resources they need and juvenile justice and crime prevention programs and recidivism efforts.”

Downtown momentum

Downtown is where additional pieces of TenHaken’s legacy likely will come together during his remaining four years in office.

“I think from Ninth Street all the way to the Falls, we’re going to totally redo that, and it’s going to be a totally different experience,” he said, pointing to plans to reconstruct part of Phillips Avenue, the Sixth Street bridge, the Seventh Street cul-de-sac and development at Falls Park, including Jacobson Plaza.

“In four years, you’re not going to recognize a lot of the neighborhood because it’s going to be so dramatically different.”

There also will be a project to complement the downtown parking ramp on the north side of 10th Street east of Phillips Avenue, TenHaken said.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “We’re going to soon be announcing the timeline and process for interested parties to begin expressing interest in the site, so I think it will be good in the second term to get that underway.”

There’s an even bigger vision coming, though.

“We talk about Phillips to the Falls, which was a big initiative and a new development, and the East Bank and how that has grown into a new development,” TenHaken said. “What’s the next big development? Our downtown is moving east, there’s a lot of transactions moving east, and there’s a tension we’re seeing between the services we’re providing there for some of our vulnerable residents and the appetite for development to move east.”

His second term will involve looking at what the next big downtown development could look like, likely between downtown’s eastern edge and Cliff Avenue, he said.

“How do we grow and develop that area as we move east? I think there’s an appetite for a large, complex development and vision between what happens between Cliff Avenue and our downtown.”

Family-friendly additions

By the fall of 2023, TenHaken hopes to have converted the city’s community centers, which are connected to schools, into “much more than recreation centers,” he said.

“They’re going to be tutoring centers, mentoring centers, programming and homework support for kids to have a much broader approach to how we’re taking care of kids outside of school.”

Trying to solve the issue of child care is a bit like tackling housing, he said.

“There’s no silver bullet solution, but the discussions we’re having and the work and partnership we’re forming with the school district is something that’s never been done in the city before … kids and families is something we’re going to lay overtop of almost every decision we’re making.”

The city also will be taking a broader look at its approach to swimming pools, where adding or rebuilding them makes sense, he said.

More broadly, the mayor said he sees his role as maintaining unity and community in our city.

“I think the next political cycle is going to be very ugly, so how do I as a mayor try to maintain a spirit of unity and a One Sioux Falls mindset when national news and all these forces tell us there are constant things we need to fight about, and that’s why (I focus) on the 95 percent of where we’re alike to keep moving forward.”

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