What projects is the city building next? This plan shows us

Jodi Schwan

July 7, 2021

The next five years could bring more than $800 million in city-supported projects across Sioux Falls, including major road improvements and replacements for three swimming pools.

Mayor Paul TenHaken’s administration delivered its five-year capital improvement program, or CIP, to the City Council last week. It totals $812.8 million, funded largely through sales tax and user fees.

He’ll detail it in his budget address later this month, but the 172-page document includes a lot of information about what’s ahead. Here are some of the highlights:

Coming in 2022

Technically, the only year of the five-year plan that gets “locked in” is the upcoming one – that’s the one where the council actually appropriates funding. The rest of it is still a plan.

And in 2022, a big focus is infrastructure: roads and utilities.

There’s more than $60 million planned for roads – the most of any year for the next five.

That includes more than 700 blocks of street reconstruction and rehabilitation, plus several large projects:

• Reconstruction of the Sixth Street bridge over the Big Sioux River downtown.
• Reconstruction of Phillips Avenue from Eighth to Ninth streets with streetscaping.
• Reconstruction of the Seventh Street cul-de-sac east of Phillips Avenue.
• Reconstruction of Minnesota Avenue from two blocks south of Russell Street to Second Street.
• Reconstruction of 41st Street from Marion Road to Shirley Avenue, as a joint project with the state, which is building a new diverging diamond interchange.
• Intersection improvements and expansions at 41st Street and Sycamore Avenue and at Sixth Street and Sycamore.
• The expansion of Sixth Street from Highline Avenue to Veterans Parkway.
• The expansion of 85th Street from Sundowner to 469th avenues.
• The expansion of Tallgrass Avenue from 74th to 85th street.

Major projects in the water and wastewater divisions to increase capacity are starting this year and will continue into 2022.

For wastewater, plant capacity will increase 50 percent to 30 million gallons a day.

The city also plans to bid its next sewer basin project early next year, opening up about 1,200 acres for development starting near Family Park and going west and south.

Park investments

In addition to previously announced park projects at Jacobson Plaza, Hayward Park and the Great Plains Zoo, there also are a handful of additional park improvements programmed for 2022.

Improvements also are planned for Rotary Park, including a fitness court, pathways and other amenities to activate the street space now that the adjacent 26th Street project is done. Tuthill Park improvements are proposed to include replacing the upper restroom and shop, combining them into one site and upgrading the utilities.

Future focus

In 2023, the city is planning to ask the council to vote on a bond that would allow money to be borrowed for several quality-of-life projects.

That’s scheduled to include replacements for the McKennan Park wading pool, built in 1971; Frank Olson Park pool, built in 1972; and Kuehn Park pool, built in 1981. The city plans to do master plans for the park and go through design for the pool replacements and associated park improvements. That would include working with the neighborhoods and community to determine the scope and features of the new pools and renovated parks.

The proposed quality-of-life bond also would include a replacement for the clubhouse at Elmwood Golf Course. The clubhouse is more than 55 years old, “is deteriorating and lacks the proper space and modern facilities to provide a great experience for patrons and maximize revenues from the recently renovated 32-hole golf course,” according to the CIP.

“It is also the only clubhouse in the region that has not been renovated, leaving the city at a competitive disadvantage.”

A fire in 2019 destroyed the cart storage building, leaving the current fleet of carts unprotected. The new clubhouse would transform Elmwood into a full-service model, featuring modernized lounge and dining amenities, a full-service kitchen and enlarged banquet spaces.

Future years of the capital program also include extensions of the bike trail, which is slated for construction of the next phase of the Cherry Creek Trail Corridor and a connection from Lien Park to Great Bear Recreation Park that will provide better access to the trail for northern Sioux Falls neighborhoods.

Looking even farther out, the city is planning to build a new fire station in 2026, but a location isn’t identified.

And there are plans to bolster neighborhood “report to work” stations for the Police Department, beginning in 2025 with the purchase of an existing “report to work” location at 4000 W. 57th St., which the city currently is leasing and where about 20 officers and 12 patrol cars will be based. It also provides a controlled area for officers to meet with victims and interview suspects.

In 2026, the plan is to construct an east-side “report to work” station between 4,000 and 8,000 square feet on land the city owns on East 41st Street near its fire station.

What’s next

The city’s budget address is scheduled for July 22, which also will include the operating budget for 2022.

Budget hearings by department are held in August, and the final budget is approved in September.

Pool report: From summer opening update to long-term replacement plans

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