Last night the Rapid City City Council voted 10-0 increase the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) from 5 million dollars capped in 2009 to 23.4 million dollars (the amount approved in 2007) for the Presidential Plaza. The expansion of the TIF will help make the financing of the,41 million dollar to 48 million dollar, project possible.
The project will change the look, feel, and future planning of downtown. The building will have a 600 spot parking garage,seventeen story hotel condominium tower, and 80,000 square feet of retail space. A picture of the building posted with a Rapid City Journal article shows a similar style to the remodeled building done by Main Street Square. The building would change the landscape of Downtown Rapid City. Compared to the tall buildings such as; Turnac Tower, the BHP building, the Radisson Hotel and the Historic Alex Johnson Hotel (which has been there since 1928). The proposed tower will dwarf them all.
The project once finished should bring the city 800,000 dollars in tax revenue. Ward 4 city council member John Roberts quoted in the Rapid City Journal said, "We're taking a piece of property that hasn't had anything on it for 35 years, and we're going to put it back on the tax rolls." Currently there is a city parking lot in the suggested location, and the revenue brought by the building through property taxes will dwarf revenue from the parking meters and parking fines that the city currently receives on the property.
If the building is completed, it would be a great addition to Downtown Rapid City, but there are possible problems if it is completed. One it will change the building style of downtown. Currently, many of the buildings are three stories or less. A higher building may seem out of place or destroy the "look" of downtown. Granted, changes of downtown could revitalize it, but the building would probably look out of place.
Another problem is, will it be completed? This is the second time that this project has been attempted. The failure of the first time caused the TIF to be lowered to 5 million dollars. The city through the TIF is nearly putting up 50 percent of the building cost. Granted there are safeguards through the TIF process that will protect the tax payers, but it is a huge risk especially in a down economy.
Traffic will be another issue that the building will affect. The argument for this similar to the Main Street Square is that these buildings will do better with a slower traffic flow. Example of this would be Phillips Ave in Sioux Falls, SD. Sioux Falls has made a nice downtown atmosphere. This is done by making the street pedestrian friendly. The problem with this is the roads downtown are major thoroughfares through the city. Without those roads, might cause traffic more congestion in the city. Granted it is a far out idea, but it could happen.
Overall, the building would be a great addition to downtown. It will probably help revive downtown by bringing new businesses. Granted there are many questions that will need to be answered before full support should be given to the project. I am though optimistic that this project will revitalize downtown and help cut down the sprawl. Time will tell, and more post probably to come...
Showing posts with label Rapid City Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rapid City Journal. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Former Governor Rounds Tries to Blame the Corps for Mismanagement
Sunday Rapid City Journal reporter Kevin Woster interviewed former South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds about the flooding in Pierre. Rounds according to the Woster article Rounds put the blame of the flooding on the water mismanagement of the Corps of Engineers, and stated to Woster that he thought living by a flood preventing structure like the Oahe dam protected his property. With the high run off on the Mississippi and the Missouri it seems that flood waters will flood some areas of Pierre and Ft. Pierre. Rounds comments seems like political pandering instead of anger and frustration.
The dams did their job by preventing the floods. They were never designed to protect land. No structure provides 100% protection. The Corps knew that they were going to have higher than normal precipitation in the basin, but not this high. The Blog the Interested Party had reported on this as early as January, and the Corps mentioned it in a article in Yankton Press and Dakotan February.
My sympathy does go out to the families who are hurting because of this flood, but the reality is preventative measures could have been taken by these residents or land owners. If people wanted to protect their investment from flooding, the mechanism available to them was Federal Flood Insurance. People like M. Rounds who now complains that the Corps had failed to do their job by not protecting his property on the flood plain need to look back less than sixty years ago at the 1952 flood. If they would have looked at what flooded back then they would have known that they had a possible risk of flooding. Blaming the Corps now because he did not take the correct precautions is not the Corps fault. Does Rounds have an alternative to the Corps?
Two popular alternatives to the Corps and the dams are the Missouri Valley Authority (MVA) or get rid of the dams. The MVA was supposed to mimic the Tennessee Valley Authority. During the creation of the Pick-Sloan Plan part of the Flood Control Act this idea was brought up by President Roosevelt other regional supporters like the Farmers Union. The MVA would work like the TVA. The MVA failed because the states did not want a bureaucratic body appointed by the Executive branch to regulate the water. The states through the Missouri River States Committee (MRSC), a group of the 10 basin governors and a state representatives, decided to side with the Corps and the Bureau of Reclamation. The MRSC believed that the plan would go through Congress with little changes, and the states at that time had a good working relationship with the Corps.
The other option would be to get rid of the dams an idea posed by Dr. Robert Kelly Schienders and Stephen Ambrose. If this option happened people living along the river would have to move to higher ground or risk yearly flooding. The river would be less static and more difficult for barge transportation in the South and recreational purposes in the North. Both regions economies would be affected greatly by this decision.
If people knew these options, we could have an honest discussion instead of the yearly blame the Corps. This flood is probably a once and a lifetime occurrence hopefully, but we need to have adult conversations for anything to be fixed. Rounds complaints sound like political positioning instead of anger or frustration.
The dams did their job by preventing the floods. They were never designed to protect land. No structure provides 100% protection. The Corps knew that they were going to have higher than normal precipitation in the basin, but not this high. The Blog the Interested Party had reported on this as early as January, and the Corps mentioned it in a article in Yankton Press and Dakotan February.
My sympathy does go out to the families who are hurting because of this flood, but the reality is preventative measures could have been taken by these residents or land owners. If people wanted to protect their investment from flooding, the mechanism available to them was Federal Flood Insurance. People like M. Rounds who now complains that the Corps had failed to do their job by not protecting his property on the flood plain need to look back less than sixty years ago at the 1952 flood. If they would have looked at what flooded back then they would have known that they had a possible risk of flooding. Blaming the Corps now because he did not take the correct precautions is not the Corps fault. Does Rounds have an alternative to the Corps?
Two popular alternatives to the Corps and the dams are the Missouri Valley Authority (MVA) or get rid of the dams. The MVA was supposed to mimic the Tennessee Valley Authority. During the creation of the Pick-Sloan Plan part of the Flood Control Act this idea was brought up by President Roosevelt other regional supporters like the Farmers Union. The MVA would work like the TVA. The MVA failed because the states did not want a bureaucratic body appointed by the Executive branch to regulate the water. The states through the Missouri River States Committee (MRSC), a group of the 10 basin governors and a state representatives, decided to side with the Corps and the Bureau of Reclamation. The MRSC believed that the plan would go through Congress with little changes, and the states at that time had a good working relationship with the Corps.
The other option would be to get rid of the dams an idea posed by Dr. Robert Kelly Schienders and Stephen Ambrose. If this option happened people living along the river would have to move to higher ground or risk yearly flooding. The river would be less static and more difficult for barge transportation in the South and recreational purposes in the North. Both regions economies would be affected greatly by this decision.
If people knew these options, we could have an honest discussion instead of the yearly blame the Corps. This flood is probably a once and a lifetime occurrence hopefully, but we need to have adult conversations for anything to be fixed. Rounds complaints sound like political positioning instead of anger or frustration.
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