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2026-08-18 - City Council

Summary

Built from the official approved minutes (adjourned 7:10 PM). No agenda or video on file.

  • All eight Council members present: Oppenheimer, Pankonin, Sigette, Spellerberg, Thomason, Basye, Merkouris and Okuwe. No one absent. A chaplain gave the invocation; the SiouxperHero Citizen Recognition Award went to Lim Bun.
  • Consent agenda approved 8-0 (moved by Basye, seconded by Sigette). It carried the minutes of the August 11 budget hearings and council meeting; contracts and agreements over $100K (memorandum of August 14); a surplus property disposition (memorandum of August 7); four requests to consume, but not sell, alcohol at the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum and the Old Courthouse Museum (September 12 and 18, October 3); special one-day liquor and malt licenses for events at Levitt at the Falls (August 20 to 29), Vern Eide Motoplex (August 29), the Reptile Adventure Zoo (September 10) and Silencer Central (October 27); and a hearing date of September 1 for a one-day liquor license for the Haitian Association of South Dakota.
  • Regular agenda approved 8-0 (Merkouris, Sigette).
  • Unfinished business: new 2026-27 retail malt beverage license for Puerto Vallarta Restaurant LLC (1801 East 10th Street), and new malt beverage and retail wine licenses for Jacky's 41st LLC (Jacky's Mexican Restaurant, 3808 North Cliff Avenue), approved together 8-0 (Spellerberg, Oppenheimer).
  • Second reading: Ordinance 59-26 rezoning 6000 W. 60th St. N. from AG Agriculture to I-1 Light Industrial adopted 8-0 (Thomason, Basye).
  • First readings, each with second reading set for September 1 and each 8-0: five more rezonings (Items 22 to 28, below), all recommended for approval by the Planning Commission.
  • Resolutions adopted 8-0: 89-26 (intent to amend the Downtown BID provisions of the tax code), 90-26 (citizen board appointments) and 91-26 (dental clinic agreement with the University of South Dakota).
  • Notice of transfer of appropriations (memorandum of July 31, 2026) received.
  • General public input covered a pellet gun incident and the investigation, fireworks, code enforcement, public engagement, financial reports of 2026 municipal candidates and campaign funding, election dates and turnout, the 2026 election and results, and a pay raise for a city department.

West 60th Street North Industrial Rezoning

  • Item 21, second reading: Ordinance 59-26 (Thomason, Basye) adopted 8-0. Applicant Stockwell Engineers, Inc, Gaard Rops.

Rezonings (first readings, Items 22 to 28)

Planning Commission recommendations as stated in the minutes; each motion only set second reading for September 1, 8-0.

  • Bull Pine Trail Rezoning (Item 22; CN Conservation and RD-2 to RA-3; Planning Commission 5-0): Basye, Spellerberg. Applicant Samuel Assam.
  • Sycamore Avenue Rezoning (Item 23; RD-1 to RD-2; 5-0): Pankonin, Okuwe. Applicant Blaine Davis.
  • North Lincoln Avenue Rezoning (Item 24; RD-1 to RT-1; 5-0): Merkouris, Spellerberg. Applicant Lynne Keller Forbes.
  • East 57th Street Office Rezoning (Item 25; C-3 to O Office; 5-0): Oppenheimer, Sigette. Applicant Rob Broin.
  • South Grange Avenue Townhome Rezoning (Item 26; RS to RT-2; 5-0): Sigette, Spellerberg. Applicant Owen Lubben.
  • Prairie Sky Addition (Item 27; land south of Hwy 42/future W. 12th St. and a half mile west of S. Ellis Rd., AG to CN, RS and RCD PUD; case 022941-2026; 5-0): Spellerberg, Merkouris. Applicant Nielson Development, LLC, Sandy Wolfswinkel.
  • Sunset Creek Addition (Item 28; land north of W. 41st St., south of W. 22nd St. and west of Tea/Ellis Rd., AG to RS, RD-1, LW, RA-1 and C-1; case 022750-2026; 7-0): Oppenheimer, Sigette. Applicant Westwood 8, LLC, Rick Dunlap.

Downtown Business Improvement District Assessment

  • Item 29, Resolution 89-26 (Spellerberg, Sigette), 8-0: a resolution of intent to amend Chapter 37 (Taxation), Downtown Sioux Falls Business Improvement District subchapter. It proposes removing the BID assessment exemption for industrial property and removing the reduced assessment for multifamily property whose sole use is residential, within the district boundary. Public hearing set for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 6 p.m. at Carnegie Town Hall; notice must be published and mailed to each taxable property owner at least 30 days before the hearing. Sponsor: Mayor Erickson.

Citizen Board Appointments

  • Item 30, Resolution 90-26 (Sigette, Merkouris), 8-0, advice and consent to Mayoral appointments: Council Member Oppenheimer to the Accessible Housing Advisory Board (September 2026 to August 2027); Kevin Gansz to the Board of Historic Preservation (September 2026 to September 2029); Jesseca Mundahl to the Board of Health as REMSA representative (no term stated); Tami Brown, Nancy Savage and Allison Weiland to the Public Parking Advisory Board (September 2026 to September 2029 each).

Dental Clinic University Partnership

  • Item 31, Resolution 91-26 (Sigette, Spellerberg), 8-0, approving an agreement between the Falls Community Health Dental Clinic/City of Sioux Falls and the University of South Dakota and authorizing the Mayor to sign. USD will transition operation of its leased and furnished dental hygiene clinic space to the city clinic; USD's Department of Dental Hygiene gets first right of refusal on dental hygiene student clinical placements.

Sources