Developer, council get more time on Lacey Estate rezone

The Sioux Falls City Council won’t decide the fate of a multi-story apartment project this summer, after all.

The city planning office and Lloyd Companies, the Sioux Falls developer looking to build a 143-unit apartment complex at Sixth Street and Bahnson Avenue where an urban farmstead sits, asked the Council Tuesday to delay taking action on a request to rezone the six-acre parcel from ag land to multi-family residential. Since the project came to light, more than 150 neighborhood property owners have joined forces to form the Shape Oak View community group and urge city policymakers to reject the project because of concerns about its impact on neighborhood density, storm water drainage and traffic.

“The intent is that the applicant wants to look at other options to potentially address some of the concerns that have been brought up,” said Mike Cooper, Sioux Falls planning director.

Adhering to the request, the Council voted 5-2 to defer a second reading until Sept. 13 to allow Lloyd Companies additional time to continue dialogue with the Shape Oak View group and, ideally, return with a compromise plan.

“If there’s another option that comes back that has enough changes to it, most likely it would end up going back to Planning Commission,” he said. “If they come back with something very similar to what they’re currently looking at, then the Council can decide if they want to act on it or not.”

Neighbors object to rezoning urban farm for apartments

But opponents of the plan questioned what good delaying the project would do. Shape Oak View's Tony Burke and dozens of his neighbors attended Tuesday night's meeting where they were unsuccessful in convincing the Council to out-right deny the rezone application instead of deferring action. A reworked development plan, whether it comes after a council denial or a remanding back to the Planning Commission, would add months to the procedural process. So would a deferral, he said.

"Let’s start over together to shape Oak View in the most efficient way possible and we are committed to doing this right for everybody,” Burke said.

Councilor Greg Neitzert agreed with Burke's line of thinking. Deferring action until September would only delay the inevitable, he said.

“If there is any substantive change that’s made to the plan, which there is going to have to be to come to some sort of consensus, it’s going to have to be remanded to the Planning Commission anyway,” he said. “Let’s just remand it and be done with it and go back to the beginning.”

The Council’s decision to delay a second reading gives Lloyd Companies three months to retool its project. Erica Beck, vice president of development for Lloyd Companies, said they’re already in the process of reassessing the project to determine if the scope of the project could be tempered back while maintaining its financial viability.

“We’re certainly going to know whether or not we can do that within a couple of weeks here,” she said. “If we can, great. If we can’t, we have to be open and honest with the Council and go forward from there.”