City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's get to work. Good evening and welcome to the city council meeting for Monday, April 6, 2026. We will begin with a roll call and determination of quorum. Leman here. Maher here. Roberts Strowman here. Pedigrew Serris here. Bdorf here. Tamang here. Evans here. Meyer here. We have a quorum. Uh thank you. Next we'll have an invocation by Pastor Randy Fipps followed by the pledge of allegiance. If you're able and willing, would you please rise?

Thank you for the uh opportunity to come and pray. And as we celebrate and recognize the freedoms we have, it's never been more evident as an American pilot that was rescued sent out the message and a signal to let everybody know that God is good. So tonight, Lord God, we thank you. Thank you that we have this opportunity to be here, to see, to serve, to trust. Thank you for wise governing leaders of Rapid City. Thank you for this council. Thank you for our mayor. Thank you for the staff of Rapid City. Thank you for the citizens of Rapid City that we recognize we are blessed. And we pray that this blessing, Lord God, would continue continue tonight, tomorrow, days and weeks until you come again. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh, next I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. Got a motion by Layman with a second by Robert. So, all in favor? Oh, all any excuse me. Stand by. Dr. Tang, Councelor Tang has an item.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. At the request of city staff, I'd like to make a motion move 37 uh to the public hearing items uh right before number 44, right? To 44B. So, moving item 37 to 44B. And I did know that. Thank you, sir. Do we have a second to that motion? Second. Got a motion by Tamang and a second by secrets to move item 37 to the public hearing and item 44P. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now, we'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. We had a motion by Layman with a second by Roberts. Uh with that change, all in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh next, I'm going to do a proclamation for purple up for military kids day and the month of the military child. Be right back. Stand up. You're all here. Oh, good. I didn't know. It's hard for me to know if everybody's here for the chickens or not. Dr. Tang and I, by the way, while everybody's coming up here, we're just talking about chicken puns. Kind of fun, right, Doc? Wherever he is. There he is. Don't get your feathers ruffled. You know, all of that. Uh before I read this, a very quick comment. Uh on behalf of the city of Rapid City, want to offer our condolences to the loved ones of Kevin Forester. Uh recently, uh passed away. He was the mayor of Sturgees up until days ago. Um but but today um we are sad about his loss and we certainly mourn with the community of Stures. We want to know that uh we're with you and God bless you all. So switching gears, I have an executive proclamation now. This is pretty cool. Are all of you military kids? Yeah. Yeah. Right on. I had a military kid, but he's no longer a kid. But um we're so grateful for the military service. Obviously, we have a deep, deep history of military service in our community with Ellsworth Air Force Base, the South Dakota National Guard, and many others. Um, and

obviously those who serve, there are others who make sacrifices as well, their families, their spouses, and of course their children. And of course, in times like this with Operation Epic Fury, it is front of mind as we recognize there are real dangers involved and real heroes still here at home. and thank you all for all of your sacrifices that you make in supporting uh our great country and we're very proud of that. So, I am very proud that um I get to read this proclamation out loud and we'll make this official right here in Rapid City. Okay, I got a little purple on just for you two. It's about the best I got so far, but all right. Whereas as Americans, we owe a tremendous debt to those who serve to protect and promote our freedom through their bravery and valor. Members of the United States Armed Forces demonstrate their commitment to our nation and values. And whereas it is important to remember that the men and women in uniform are not alone in making sacrifices, the cause of freedom makes great demands upon the husbands and wives, parents and grandparents and children of our military personnel. And whereas for children, the sacrifice is especially poignant. From always being the new kid in school to the strain of being separated from a deployed parent, military children often live with uncertainty and fear. And gold star children in particular know this sacrifice all too well. Whereas many children have a parent serving on active duty, reserve, or guard military duty. And each April we make a special effort to applaud military families and pay tribute to the resilient nature of military children. And whereas it is important to recognize the outstanding courage and strength of our area's military children and their families that demonstrate the patriotism, bravery, and dedication that keep our community and America strong. Now, therefore, I, Jason Solomon, mayor of the city of Rapid City, do hereby proclaim April 10th, 2026 and April 2026 in general, respectively, as purple up

for Military Kids Day and month of the military child in Rapid City, South Dakota. We urge all citizens to wear purple in support of the strength and sacrifices of our children across the country. One more cool thing. This Friday, the dinosaur and dinosaur hill will be lit up. And we don't do this often. I'm very particular about it, but we will light it up purple just for you. So, thank you all very much. I'm going to sign this and make it official. You want to witness? Make sure I sign this right. All right. There we go. Signed, sealed, and delivered. All right. So, stay up here. We're gonna take some pictures, I believe, uh, wherever Daryl is. And it looks like we got a lot of photographers here. So, let's stand in front of this podium. I'll move this back, though. Somebody right next to you right behind you. Right behind you. Couple more good.

Just got to note that the spires at Main Street Square will also be lit up purple on Friday. Very cool. Great day. All right, we will move on to general public comment. A time for members of the public to discuss or express concerns to the council on any issue not on the agenda. Action will not be taken at the meeting on any issue not on the agenda except by unanimous vote of the council members present. I do have a few speaker request forms. As a reminder, you have uh three minutes uh per person and we'll have a countdown timer right up here. Uh we just ask that you uh keep it civil. But of course we will get going with Ron Wenbach. Commissioner Wifenbach is here.

Right over there, sir. Which one?

Okay. Hi. I'll try to get this done in three minutes, but uh I want to set the record straight here. I feel like I'm in the story land of Dr. Tang goes to Washington. Um, I'm basically here to talk about the TIFF that uh the Rapid City administration sent to the to the uh county commission because they they couldn't get it done. So, they sent it to the county commission to say, "Hey, can you guys work on this for us?" Oh, it looks great. This is a great opportunity to do this. Okay. So, next thing I know, I started getting comments on Facebook and uh uh some other neighborhood uh sites that said, "What's going on here? You're doing this tiff or whatever." and completely out of context. I had a conversation with him, Mr. Tamang. I told him straight exactly what was happening, but he chose not to listen to me. He's worried about losing control of a tiff that you guys actually originated. And so, I want to make sure that everybody in this audience and everybody in Rapid City knows that Dr. Tamang would did not know what he was talking about on Facebook. And even though I tried to straighten him out on it, he wouldn't listen. instead he got his gas can out, start a gaslighting the community about a tip that's really good for the community moving forward. So, what I'm asking the city council to do here today is take the time you need to take and actually vet it again. I I'm not going to I don't know what happened, how it got to me that point. I'm not here to to uh burn any bridges with anybody or anything like that, but I am tired and sick and tired of being vetted out on Facebook for something that is completely out of does not make any sense. When a guy doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to zoning and planning, you shouldn't be talking. You should listen to the people that know what you're doing, Mr. Tang. These are your colleagues. I'm one of your colleagues. And what you've done to the community is an injustice. and what you've done behind the scenes texting people to to shoot this down with no reasoning, no rationale is borderline unethical. And I want everybody in the city to know it because you are on a rampage

to make this city a terrible place to live and work thinking that these council members are bad people. They're not bad people. When you have public meetings, that's the time for transparency, not before you know what you're talking about. If you didn't know what you were talking about at Legal and Finance, you should have took the time. You got my phone number. You could have called me. You could have called Dan Angley. You could have called Jason Solomon. All these people knew what was going on. It's not my fault or the or the county's fault that you didn't know what was going on. But you chose to gaslight the situation. It's very disappointing the fact that the county and the city today probably have some of the best relations that they're ever going to have. And then you got one guy, one guy who wants to gaslight the community. Unbelievable to me. Unethical. And I would ask the council to take this one up and and do some research on it. But I'm here to set the record straight. I hope the GRA City Journal gets this straight because the reality is the city came to the county. We were going to help the county out with this project and everybody knows it. But now, if you didn't know it, you will know it. And now the rest of the community is going to know it. And I'm pissed off.

I have never in my life I've been on this council on and off long time. I've never in my life been treated like that. It's so disrespectful. Disrespectful what we're doing at the commission. We're going to take this up later. We can talk about it then, too. Good. The reason I came to public comment is I don't want to hear it. I'm done. All right. Next up, we have Judith Miller.

And Judith, we could we could help you if you need help. Okay.

Yes. Uh, I just wanted to say last fall I went up to Dinosaur Park and um when I got there they didn't have any wheelchairs and uh someone said they would push me all the way up to the top and they did and I was very happy about that because I got to go up there since I hadn't been there since I was a child. And uh I just want to bring it to your attention that maybe it would be a good idea if uh they had maybe two or three wheelchairs at Dinosaur Park and maybe if people wanted to take them, they could take their ID, driver's license or whatever it is and that would kind of make them come back to get their ID. But I would like to see something uh put into motion that um or have you discuss it and make sure that maybe something gets up there for people that are handicapped because it was very hard for the person to take me up there. That's it.

Thank you, Judith. That's a great idea. Director Beagler, will you make a note of that? I'd love you to look into that. We'll take that idea and run with it. And how cool it is that you got to go up there for the first time since you were a child. I've heard that. I've heard that many times. I think we're awfully proud of that project. So, thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next up, Sean Wagner. Good evening, council and mayor. Standing here to offer a formal apology to the body of our city government uh officials. While I've previously claimed members of this government broke the law, I now recognized those accusations were premature. The city attorney or the last city attorney only recently provided clarification on these matters nearly three years after I brought it up for the first time in uh August 28 of 2022 at the special meeting with Mayor Allander. In that clarification, the city attorney used verbiage describing council members as part-time employees to justify these actions. However, my apology for the timing of those claims does not change my stance on the spirit of the constitution. The clear intent of our state's founding document is to prevent any official from benefiting from a pay hike they help facilitate while still in office. This is a fundamental safeguard for the public trust. Furthermore, there is a clear contractual conflict at play. When the mayor and the council members are elected, they agree to fix to a fixed term, which is essentially a contract with the voters. My concern is that any change in pay before that term expires violates the principles of article 12 subsection 3. This includes the three% cost of living adjustment cola the mayor received. Even as an adjustment for inflation, this constitutes a change in the financial terms of an active contract. Crucially, while the council may be

labeled as part-time, the mayor is a full-time officer. And I'm passionate about this because I'm educating myself and I want to see in real time how powerful our constitution is. But how the city is fighting this, saying I'm wrong is saying y'all a m municipality and y'all don't uh y'all don't fit under the constitution. Well, we have a major conflict then and I think we do need to take this to the Supreme Court, which I'm in the uh steps of doing that. So, we could iron this out because I feel firm with the Constitution that it's strong. It's a living will and it's it's written plainly. There shouldn't statues and these ordinances do not supersede the Constitution. Those are the babies. Thank y'all for your time. And I I actually, you know, mayor, from my uh investigating, I think I'm a little right, but every time you get paid, you are breaking the law, taking money, the taxpayer money when this has happened. And I I just want to talk to y'all and let's let's grow together and let let's say whoops, we made a mistake just like I did tonight. I've been saying y'all been breaking the law. I I'm sorry, but I'm passionate about this and I want to show myself and the people here,

Mr. That the Constitution are works. Thank you. Thanks.

Uh that will conclude the general public comment and we will now move on to non-public hearing items 2 through 43 and open the public comment for items 2 through 30. I do have one speaker request form for item 24 from Deborah Jensen. So Deborah, same rules apply. Three minutes for you, ma'am. Good evening, Mayor Solomon and members of the common council. I'm Deborah Jensen, the president of the Mount Rushmore Road Group and chairperson of the Mount Rushmore Road Business Improvement District Board. So, I am here tonight again on item 24 on tonight's agenda requesting the disbandment of the bid board. The board members deeply appreciate Mayor Solomon's appointments and we support very much and appreciate the support that the city council has provided these past months. However, due to a threat of a lawsuit against the city by some of the property owners, the board believes that litigation is not in the best interest of anyone. So now, the Mount Rushmore Road Group is now actively seeking donations and sponsorships for some planned projects. We are still planning to install some patriotic banners along Mount Rushmore Road. We're also working to rehabilitate some of the rain gardens as agreed upon to be more attractive and to also serve as educational tools for water conservation and native pollinator plants. And we plan to continue with the this year's annual Wilson Park Christmas lighting and ceremony. We'd like to thank Chief Don Hedrickk uh and of course the assistant police chief and the amazing men and women of the Rapid City Police Department for really stepping up with the increased efforts to keep our corridor safe. Special thank

you to finance director Daniel Aninsley for his guidance and most especially to the bid board business leaders Scott Vincent, Kurt Rising, Sean Heny, and Lacy Sosa for their dedication and the countless hours that they spent planning the business improvement district for the benefit of us all. Thank you. Thank you. That will conclude the public comment for items 2 through 30 and we will close the public comment and move on to consent items 2 through 30. Would the council like to remove any item for separate consideration or approve approve all the items here? Second.

All right, we got a motion by Maher to approve items 2 through 30 with a second by Tang. All in favor?

Any opposed? That motion carries. That will take us to the end of the consent items. Now we will move on to non-consent items 31- 43 and open public comment for items 31- 43. I do have a number of speaker request forms for item 31, otherwise known as backyard hens ordinance. By default, uh the city allows 10 minutes per side of an issue unless the council chooses to make a motion uh to uh undo that and allow all the comments uh to be heard tonight. So would we have a motion by anybody to change the rules on that? Councelor Maher.

Uh I would make a motion that we allow 20 minutes on each side. Thank you. If I can get a second. Got a motion by Maher and a second by Tamang to allow 20 minutes per side of this issue. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. I think I need a roll call vote. Heidi, would you mind?

Leman, no. Maher, yes. Roberts, yes. Strowman, yes. Crisis, no. Bubberdorf, no. Tang, hi. Evans, no. Meyer. Uh motion is to approve.

Motion to approve. Okay. So, I'm just going to read start from the top of the list and we're going to go for 20 minutes. The the count the clock will just go continuously. So, what I will do just to give everybody a heads up. Here's a couple of suggestions. We would like to hear from as many of you as possible. So, you don't have to use a full three minutes, but you can max out your time at three minutes each. Uh, but the less you say, the more the next person can say something. I will tell you who's on deck so that you can be ready and we'll just try to to run through this and we'll get to the vote. How's that sound? Sound good? All right. Uh, first up we have Sarah Parkinson followed by April Malik or Malik, excuse me. Sarah Park. There you go. And April, you're you're on deck.

Three minutes each. Go ahead and go right to the microphone there.

Hey, I'm Sarah from Trash Farm. Little recap. Since 2020, we've been collecting and composting food waste from around Rapid City. Uh it's been mentioned during the hen argument that they could be of use for that. So, here I am again. Uh about 30% of the food that we buy in an American household goes to waste. We have about 40% of municipal landfills are food waste. Um, in 2025, Trashy Farm by volunteer only hobbyists, we took in 9,000 pounds over 9,000, which is 4.5 tons of food waste, which is gathered about 260, I believe, pounds a week from about a dozen households. That's it. And that's 4 and a half tons. About 5.2 ounces a day is eaten by a hen. If you have six hens, that does add up. Anything extra, it gets composted because the little ladies rip it up. It's actually a really good resource for food waste. It's a really good resource for getting compost. It's a good resource for families around the area. And there are countless articles in the BBC about European countries that have given out chickens to mun municipalities. And we've only had success in it. Rapid City was built on this. My family's been here since it was formed. This is all we've done is we've hunted, we've farmed, we've ranched, and we've supported our community. And I implore you guys to do the same and support that. Trash lily farm. We're a resource. We will help you deal with your chickens. Feed them. Learn how to take care of them. Do it properly. We've had hens in every condition and no one's ever complained. I've talked to my neighbors more than I ever have because of it. So, I implore you, please just give people birds. It's not that bad.

All right, April, you're up next, followed by Kathy Kathy Thrash, excuse me.

Hi, my name's April Malik. Yep. I'm an educator and a parent. I just wanted to bring a point of view in uh favor of the hen ordinance. Um this last summer I was had the opportunity to be on the South Dakota Department of Education uh cluster um human services cluster as we were adding classes and modifying the standards and an community nutrition class was added um I to which involves um communities that get around the topic of food insecurity and food sovereignty. I came across this flyer of a project happening in our um town. Obviously, we have areas of food deserts and I wanted to bring an example. In Detroit, after a couple large grocery chains um closed, they had a real issue and um they enacted a food sovereign Detroit initiative where people really got involved and they obviously they allow eight hens in that town. Um but and the educational side for young for children and young young people to learn and connect with a in a small way. Gardening obviously is wonderful but having chickens. I personally became a beekeeper when I was raising my kids to give them some connection in our town because bees are allowed and rapid. Um but also I just you might consider asking the schools to help with educating young people with the care and keeping of chickens um and encourage local urban egg. um also. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Kathy. You're up next, followed by Dave Holland.

Hello. Sorry. Hello, council. Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here. Um Kathy Thrash. Um I'm business owner, lived here in Rapid City since 1994. Grew up on the prairie, so am familiar with agriculture, but did not have them, hens or or livestock personally, but knew plenty of family that did. Um, I'm also on the sustainability committee and since 2020 and I am all for um you guys supporting this ordinance. I think you've looked at it very well. I've seen it kind of go through about three times the way I understand it and you've added restrictions and some enforcement and I think that it's um you've done your due diligence and I thank you for that. I do not envy your positions at all in having to choose anything like this. But I think you guys have done great. I appreciate your work on it. Um to me it leads to it's like a stepping stone leading to more sustainable, more local, more resilient um local food supply and it's just really in keeping with our agricultural state um and the land spa landfill space alone with the with the food waste I think would be a benefit um to save space there because I know we're creeping up on on losing that space. Um, I thank you for considering it and moving us forward. And I'll yield my time to the next one. Thank you.

Thank you. David, you're up next, followed by Glenda Nixon.

Hi. Uh, my name is David Holland, and I am part of the group that, uh, started this initiative over a year ago. We looked at all of the comments against why it didn't pass the last time, and we spent a lot of time talking to all the different actors and tried to address all of those concerns. We created an ordinance that had 10 restrictions in it. um and then started a petition drive and councilman Tang uh decided to bring it before the council and uh city staff was directed to modify they city staff ended up adding six more restrictions. So the ordinance we have before us today has a total of 16 restrictions. I'd like to give a shout out to the legal and community planning department. Thank you so much for working through this. It's a sticky topic and uh we're just very appreciative of your work on that. Just as a little comparison, Sou Falls has one, two, three restrictions, no more than six hens, no roosters, and can't got to be 25 feet from your neighbor's house. Uh, so it makes me wonder why rapid seated you need 16. I spent a lot of time talking to animal control officers across the state of South Dakota, and I would like to give you quick highlights from some of those conversations. The question I asked them was, what's the worst thing that's happened with chickens in your community? Sou Falls gets about 18,000 animal control related calls a year. They average 12 related to chickens. Their most common complaint is people having more than six or a straight chicken. Sturgeis, one out of 300 calls a year um is related to chickens. Occasional rooster or not kept clean. Spearfish, three out of 500 calls is related to chickens. Their most common complaint is a loose chicken. Aberdine gets three or four calls a year. The last one was somebody didn't know they needed a coupe. Fargo gets one or two calls a year uh related to a loose chicken. They said usually after a storm when the coupe is damaged. um Hot Springs. Uh very interesting conversation with that gentleman. You get less than five calls a year and he said that it doesn't matter if you had dogs did not have dogs, cats or chickens in your town, people would find something else to complain about. Um so my last comment is if you believe that

chickens are a bad idea in Rapid City and yet they have not caused problems in other communities, why is Rapid City different? And I'll be available for questions if you have any. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Glenda, you're up next followed by Stephanie Peterson. Hey, thank you council members for your work on this issue. I really appreciate it. You got a tough vote because there are people on both sides. But I want to tell you, even though my husband and I don't want to raise chickens, we've been there, done that, and had fun. Uh I've got a visual for you of how wonderful it was for our children many years ago to have chickens. And this little uh was done by a patient of my husband's who saw a picture in in his office of our daughter with her chicken and she did this as a surprise for for us. Many years later um I I think chickens very few people are going to raise chickens. Okay, that's the reality. But the people who want to raise them are doing it for ecological reasons and healthy hens, I mean eggs. But a lot of people are doing it for their children. We we worry about children being in front of screens too much. Get the kids in the backyard playing with their chickens, learning responsibility, feeding them, holding them, putting them on the swing. Um the other thing is this this daughter now, Leah, is now in a wheelchair. She will never have chickens in her yard, but she and her husband have the honor of raising cattle and chickens outside of town on a farm. Most people can't be on a farm. Give the people chickens. Hands. No roosters. And I'll tell you that chickens are a lot less noisy than someone's barking dogs. Thank you.

All right, Stephanie, you're up next, followed by Susan Nolan. Hello everyone. My name is Stephanie Peterson. I'm a business owner from Sou Falls. Um I'm here to represent the eastern part of the state and kind of share a little bit of our experience there. I have a business called Fruit of the Coupe. It's a small farm um an agriculture business. I sell eggs to restaurants. I do have a large flock of about 80 hens. But I've worked in the backyard chicken community in Sou Falls since the ordinance was passed in 2010 and 2011. I teach all the backyard chicken keeping classes for the city of Sou Falls and for Sou Falls Community Ed. Um, and I would like to thank you for addressing this matter. We've been doing it forever out there. It's been going great. Um, like David mentioned, our animal control has very little complaints about the chickens in general, and we have very few restrictions. Um, I was active in helping Brandon, South Dakota, uh, write and pass a chicken ordinance in 2019. We followed the Souf Falls ordinance almost um, identically with only five or five or six restrictions, I think, in the Brandon ordinance. I spoke with the city manager this morning of Brandon. He told me he's had maybe two or three complaints since 2019. So, they really are doing great in Brandon and the community members are following the ordinance um very well. Um there's so many communities in our state that have backyard chickens and have little problems with it. Um there's so many benefits to backyard chickens and some of those have already been mentioned by the other community members here. I also want to let you know that, you know, a properly written ordinance, it allows for the community to have a freedom to be self- sustainable and to build their community resiliency and have control over their own food sources. Um, and it also allows for the balance of living in an urban area and sharing that space with other people. The neighbors who want to have chickens, they are just that. They are your neighbors. They care about their property value. They care about the smells and the way their property looks just as much as you do. Um, so I I also want to offer if you guys do pass this ordinance, I would love to come back to to the city to

Rapid City and offer a free backyard chicken keeping class for the community members who want to have chickens so they can do it correctly. Um, so I'm available for that. I'm available for any questions you have um about chickens in general and and how to take care of them. Um, one more thing I'll mention is in Sou Falls, we uh have always had an annual tour to coupe um which has been super fun. spend basically a full Saturday in the in the fall where you can tour backyard um coups around the area to get ideas for your own coupe and to highlight the cute coups that are out there, the designs, and then the beautiful animals that they're caring for. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Susan, you're up next, followed by Jamie Wallace.

Mayor Solomon and members of the city council, thank you for the service that you provide for our community. I'm kind of an unusual person to be coming here talking in favor of chickens. I don't want chickens, but I want other people to have chickens. I live in a townhouse area, and it would be completely against the covenants for me to have chickens, but I really support that idea of my neighbors down West Boulevard and throughout the city having chickens. And my reason for this is I'm a vegetarian. I don't want to eat chickens either, but I do eat eggs. And I just did some research on the way here. There are nine billion that's billion chickens killed, slaughtered in mass execution areas. They called chicken slaughter houses in our country a year. 9 billion, that's 26 million chickens that we kill a week. I'm a little horrified by that, but I'm a vegetarian and animal rights activist, and so that's my perspective on this whole thing. But I do know that people who have backyard chickens take excellent care of them. I had the privilege of being in Tucson for six weeks this winter. My next door neighbor was a chicken. In fact, six chickens. Tucson has certainly passed an ordinance to bring chickens into some of their most pristine and upscale neighborhoods. And I was not at all bothered by smell, noise, or any noxious thing by these chickens next door to me. So what I find out about chickens is that chickens make good neighbors. People who have chickens tend to give away their eggs. Sometimes they sell them, sometimes they trade them, but we get to know these people who are raising these chickens. It creates a community good feeling about who our neighbors are and what they're doing. And I really support that kind of thing. We also know

that groceries are going skyhigh. Having chickens helps people be more self- sustainable. So, um, and and again, I want to just uh emphasize that I'm really in favor of people having chickens in their backyards because they do treat them humanely. They do treat they they're they're clean. They're careful about these chickens. I've heard that chickens in backyards will raise will lower property values. I don't think so. I don't think that's an a legitimate concern at all. So, I've had my say and I appreciate the time and I hope that you will vote in favor of neighborhood chickens. Thank you.

Jamie, you're up next, followed by Christa Lishner.

Hey there. Uh my name is Jamie and I live in Ward 2. Um, after hearing some of the concerns from the the January meeting, I was just kind of disappointed to hear a lot of you talking about uh the lack of impact that just raising six hens could bring to residents. Um, as a hunter and a fisherman, I understand that uh, you know, raising six hens isn't going to replace my need to go to the grocery store. Um, but I spend time, gas, money every single year getting fishing hunting licenses just for the chance to bring home some fish or a deer to prepare meals for my family and we enjoy every bit of it when I do. Um, chickens are the same thing, just like gardening, hunting, fishing. This offers residents a greater sense of purpose through small acts of self-sufficiency. Um, it offers us a chance to educate kids about where their food comes from and a chance to expand South Dakota's agricultural legacy. We come from the east coast, lots more people. They allow chickens in almost every town back there. Uh, this is just we just don't see the widespread problems um that I've heard voiced. Um, I think that this ordinance is really well written. I think they've addressed a lot of the concerns that we've heard about noise and smell and whatnot. Um, and I just think it's uh it's time to let us kind of enjoy the pursuit of happiness and and be able to provide for our family in any way that we can during these times. Thank you.

Thank you, Christa. You're up next, followed by Laura Pining or Pining. I'm sure Laura would tell me how to pronounce her name. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Hello.

Hello, city council members. Um, my name is Christa. I live in Ward three. Um, I know there's a large flock here, so I'll be quick. Um, I I wanted to uh show you my support for backyard hens. Um, we have two young kids and so uh you know, someone mentioned the responsibility of showing your kids how to care for your animals, grow your own food. That's important to us. Um, I would love to be able to go in my backyard and and get some fresh eggs. And so, um, keeping this super quick. Um, I understand there may be concerns about people not following the rules. I encourage you to make decisions not based on on the minority. Um, also my husband is in strong support as well. He drew the short straw for bedtime battle, so he's not here tonight, but um we are both in support and I encourage you to support it as well. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Uh Laura, you're up next, followed by Mason Schumacher.

Hi. Uh my name is Laura Pining. I'm a resident of Rapid City and I'm asking you to approve the ordinance to allow backyard hens. It's all been said pretty much before, but we know there's uncertainty right now in in our economy and in our society. And any anything we can do to make local healthy foods available, we should do because local foods means local resilience. Um, so backyard hens takes a little bit of pressure off the groceries. Uh, and it's kind of a joke, but if a hundred families get hens, 300 people have eggs. So that's 300 other people who can get to the market and grab what's there. It's a small step, but it matters. Every little step matters. And um farmers, families who raise hands are part of a larger, what do we call it? A food independence movement. They like gardening, composting, backyard food forests, food preservation, cooking at home. And I hear a lot of people uh asking for help with this when I do my work with the Pennington County Master Gardeners um with the um sustainability committee, the farmers market, and um my contract work uh working for a nonprofit trying to put together small food hubs. People want to know how to be self-sufficient. This is a wonderful way to give them the start. So, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mason, you're up next, followed by Barb Schnel.

All right, I'll try to be quick, but uh my name is Mason Schumacher. I'm a senior here in Rapid City, and I've been working with David and the sustainability committee on this for a while. And I guess one point I want to bring up when I do research on this type of thing, I'm I'm very big on the facts. I want to make sure I'm saying things correct. So, I did some digging onto egg prices because that's been a big topic of discussion recently. Since 2023, they've had 150% increase in volatility. Now, me personally, if you have a young guy like me concerned about egg prices, you know something's wrong. So, I figured the best way we could tackle this is to have hens in my own backyard. I mean, I did ranch work for with my cousins for a very, very long time. So, I know how good those homegrown eggs taste. And I think a lot of people in here can attest to that as well, that those taste a lot better than the crap you're getting in the grocery store. So, I know they won't fully take away, as the gentleman prior to me stated, that they won't fully take away your um bills at the grocery store, but I do think that they would help alleviate some of that financial burden that a lot of families face. Thank you.

Thank you, Barb. You're up next, followed by Heidi Perry, time permitting. Um, we have a small farm north of Rapid and uh we've raised chickens for generations, for decades, maybe not generations. And and we understand where the humane society might not be the best fit for people surrendering chickens due the due to the space constraints um investing in coups and equipment and general husbandry. We would like to be part of the solution and we would be more than happy to serve as a point of contact for any chickens needing to be rehomed. I currently have eight different families, family farms willing to accept chickens and could easily double that number. All of these families currently have flocks. Um they own their own farms and several of the and several are generational farmers. We understand the be benefits of being self- sustaining. We hope the citizens of Rapid City interested in raising chickens will be given the opportunity. We would like to help.

Hello. I live in Rapid City and I would really like chickens. All right. Uh Heidi, you're up next and the last speaker would be Sabrina Harmon with the council council. Uh these two are the last two. Would you mind if they all just go ahead and made their comments? That'd be all right. All right. Nobody's opposing me. All right. There you go.

Well, I my name is Heidi Perry and um I'm speaking partially on behalf of my son who lives here, but he was not able to be here. 4 um was a big thing for him and chickens were his gateway drug um to be quite honest. But they they did they impacted him and and they talked about screen time. I almost everything that I have written down here is something that somebody else has at least hit upon. Um the one thing that they didn't hit upon that I would like to point out is the cost of raising a chicken and having a chicken or five as a pet compared to the cost of a regular pet, say dog or cat is minimal. And so that opens the door for some of your other people that are going to get a double whammy with that because they get to have the psychological benefit and the education piece of um having an animal and raising that and all that, but but also they get a return on investment with those eggs and one vet bill of a dog or a cat is more than it costs to invest in those chickens for a year.

Thank you. Thank you. Final speaker on this item is Sabrina Harmon.

Hello. I don't know if I know how to work this or if it would pick it up, but I have handouts to give to you. I am Serena Harmon with the and I'm the director of the Whatever it Takes Coalition based out of New. I have a ranch northwest of New and um our coalition is a prevention and education coalition. So what I am bringing to you is um I guess it won't fit on there but the benefits the mental health benefits and if you would work with any kind of prevention you will hear mental health is a big issue with everything in society anymore and this talks about all the benefits that raising a chicken helps with mental health and I don't want to keep you up but and I agree with every thing else that was here but um Just for the mental health aspect of it, I would raise chickens. We do raise chickens and we like the eggs. So, but if you want to hand out, I have some here.

All right. Thank you. And Demo Rodriguez for item 39. If you want weigh in on the chicken debate.

I like chickens. Um Demo Rodriguez with the Rapid City Sports Commission. Excuse me. simply just here to um say I'm available for questions particularly regarding item 39 um and the request for proposals for the sports uh fieldhouse. Again, this is something that we've been working on for a long time. This is simply a formality. Uh you'll see me again in a couple of weeks when we go through the Seymar process. Um we do have a uh site selected um but just more so available for questions if anyone has any questions uh about the process or where we're at. So thank you all and uh good luck tonight.

All right. Thank you. Final speaker request form is Joe Muth, but he has a note on here that he's available for questions for item 40 if you have any. So well that will conclude the public comment uh for the items 31 through 43 and we will move on to item 31. the first reading of ordinance number 6713, an ordinance authorizing the keeping of hens on certain residential properties in the city. And with that, I will open it up to the floor for discussion to approve. All right, we have a motion by Tamang initially to approve with a second by Maher and Councelor Sris, you're on the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you for all of our speakers this evening um here in support of this ordinance. Um and many of you were also here on Wednesday. So I just really admire the dedication that you have to this. Um I myself am am not um planning to get chickens or hens in um my property, but I do plan on supporting this. I think that anything that we can do to provide families with the self- sustainability and reliability during um especially times where we have ongoing bird flu and other challenges happening and impacting our our regular food supplies is going to benefit us as a community. Um, and I know I've spoke on this every time it's come forward um, of recent in this last uh, few months. So, I won't keep the floor for too long, but just thank you to the city staff who listen to our feedback. We do have those um, considerations written into the ordinance that really are addressing the concerns that we've heard time and again from residents. um even perhaps to um a pretty um extreme measure as we've heard that our ordinance is pretty restrictive compared to some of our neighboring communities. Um one note of a speaker that mentioned the Souf Falls ordinance drafted in 2010 and uh 2011 that it's taken us 15 years to catch up to Sou Falls and and um what they have going on there. I hope that we can um also see few complaints and um we have the successes that we've seen in other communities. So, thank you.

Next up, Councelor Strowman.

Thank you, Mayor. Um yeah, this is I don't know how many times at the chicken ordinance, but four. Okay. Um, and when we started out on this process a few years ago when I was first on the council, and I had pretty much overwhelming uh opposition to the chickens or or any ordinance that would allow backyard hens. Um, I think that there has and I still have some and I've gotten a lot of emails, which I read all your emails and I try to respond to your calls. Um and uh kind of the pendulum swung a little bit. I think there's more support now, at least there's more vocalized support for um this experiment. And so um I think you have have to take another look at um I don't think the old news is is uh still applicable. So I think there's been a lot of work done on this ordinance. Um there's a lot of restrictions put on it. Um, I think that, um, if we're ever going to get get there, this is probably the ordinance that we need to start out with. So, I yield.

Thank you. Uh, next up, we have councelor Evans. Um, I re going to reiterate what councelor um, Councilman Strowman just said. There seems to have been a shift. It used to be 10 to one in opposition. Um, I think it's kind of switched now. And so I apologize to people who saw me as a stellar opponent to the chicken ordinance. I have to realize what the people want. And although I don't really care one way or the other, I just want to make sure that the citizens get appropriate representation. Um, we see what happens back in January when you do something that the citizens really don't want. So, if they really don't want this, you know, there's an election coming up in June and you can fix it then. Um, so, and I also want to say, you know, as we've had our ranch, it's 107 years now, a legacy property. Um, I've never seen a chicken die of old age to be honest with you, um, in my 71 years of that property. So I will say to the lady with the beautiful loving as a counselor Demang would say chicken joy um picture uh we'll see if it's quite that joyful when it's sitting in that soup pot. So um anyhow I'll be supporting this tonight. Thank you.

Council Roberts with his words of support. Yeah. So, I'm the only one sitting on this dis I think that's been through this every single time it's came forward over the last decade. Um, you know, and I will say one thing, Greg is correct. The it is shifting because the first time I heard this, it was overwhelmingly not wanted in my ward. But this this also shows the differences in wards in Rapid City. So now I've got a lot more phone calls, a lot more emails from people that are actually in my ward that are supporting it, but it's still not even close. I mean, if if I pulled the people that I talked to, it's probably 7030 still. So, you know, and if anybody knows me, I've been here for a very long time and it takes a lot to make me to change my mind and change my vote. And I've voted against it every single time and I'm voting against it again. But that being said, it doesn't really matter because it's going to pass because there's not enough votes to to stop at this time. I am happy that uh we did get some restrictions in this ordinance. Um I have spoke to a lot of people like I said that are against it and they were concerned and this will alleviate some of their concerns. Again, reading the ordinance, I I see we're going to have a chicken enforcement officer in there. And I'm kind of curious about who that's going to be because that person hasn't been, you know, um and I know that we have again, and this is a ward issue in my my ward, we have a lot of issues with code

enforcement, and I just hope we don't end up with a chicken enforcement issue in my ward. So anyway, I'm still voting no. Sorry. Sorry you didn't sway me, but uh it is what it is. Thank you. We got a followup from councelor secretress.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was just going to um I had a constituent that reached out to me with a concern and I've also kind of like the rest of our group here had received lots of feedback and had lots of dialogue with constituents and I would say for the majority overall positive um communications that I've received I I have had I don't know 20 or so in support maybe three to four emails um that I can remember communicating with um opposed, but one of my constituents that was concerned was um concerned about potential animal um impacts with animals attacking a chicken. And um I think we've alleviated that concern with the coupe being covered and the run being covered and secured um so that we never have chickens on the loose or out in the neighborhood. Um but I was going to just out of curiosity see if Mr. Holland would come back up and out of all the communities that you surveyed, did you ever hear of that concern having been um come to light or um had any um anything of the sorts with um either animals attacking chickens or um even our friendly dogs having interactions, negative interactions with chickens? Do you recall any of those concerns having never been brought forward?

Yeah, that's what I was looking for. I was looking for people to validate the concerns of citizens that were against it and the reasons why they were against it. I was looking for situations where their fears were actually realized. Um, and I got one animal control person on the phone that, you know, started repeating some of the terrible stories about dogs getting into coops and killing all the chickens and fox and everything. And then I said, uh, well, are chickens allowed in your community? Do you have chickens there? No, no, no. I've just heard that that could happen. And I said, 'Well, can you forward me to the animal control officer that covers that community where they're allowed? And so then I talked to him and he was the one in Hot Springs that told me that's really not that big of an issue. So I was looking for that person and I didn't find them. Um, I had one smell complaint and they said that they issued a citation and within two or three days it was uh taken care of. Um, yeah, I didn't really get very many of those.

Okay. Well, I was just thinking that this would be a great opportunity and unique opportunity to be able to um get your feedback here from the dis. So, thank you for your efforts on that and so appreciated. Um, thank you.

Any other comments? All right, we'll go to a vote in just a minute. Uh couple of things. We talked I heard a lot about the restrictions. When we first brought this up, Dr. Tam put it on the agenda just to see if we should have the staff uh put put an ordinance together to make sure that it was worthwhile. And I believe I had to break the tie at that time. And one of my my things was uh I will support this ordinance so long as we mitigate the impacts on neighbors. And it's much easier to start with a more restrictive ordinance and over time if you find that something isn't an issue, you could always you could always relax certain parts of it later, but it's hard to do it in reverse. So, um, if the council passes it tonight, I will not veto it. I will sign it. Um, but that was that was a big part of that. I will say I got a lot of good feedback. I you know, I also posted online to get a lot of folks feedback. We made a couple of changes based on the feedback that we received and so we do appreciate that. I think I told Dr. Tang I think this is why I like this topic is it it shows so much about the the civic process just there's good debate on both sides. you can see the both of the points property rights and the ability to feed yourselves versus uh impacts on neighboring properties and how do you mitigate that and just the passion and what we've seen over the years with this issue to Robert's points and I thought that was what's really good about this but why this is going to pass the first reading tonight still has a second reading to get to uh is likely because of the efforts that you all did in hearing the opposition from years past learning lessons doing homework work. And so it wasn't just passion alone, it was logic and reason as well. For me, it came down to when I saw empty store shelves during the pandemic with supply chain shortages, uh, I knew the local food supply issue was one that I knew I was going to be passionate about to make sure that we have some way to feed our community should hard times

ever hit again. So, I appreciate everybody's comments tonight. I thought it was really good. Appreciate all the counselors for their aspects. and we can go to the vote. But councelor Strowman, thank you. Just real quick, there will be a second reading and another chance for anyone that wants to voice their opinion to make it known. So, yes, this isn't the end of the road yet, but Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I have that song in my head now, but that's all right. Um, with that, we'll go to I think I know how it's going to go, but we'll go to a roll call vote just in case. Heidi.

Yeah, we already had a motion from Tamang with a second by Crisis before the uh counselors began a discuss or excuse me, a motion by Tamang and a second by Maher, not Crisis Strowman. Hi Crisis. Hi. Bdorf. Yes. Tang. Hi. Evans. Hi. Meyer. Hi. Leman. No. Maher. Hi. Roberts. No. Motion passes 7 to2.

Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on to item 32. First reading of ordinance number 6709, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code. A request by Rener Associates LLC for S7 LLC for reszoning request from no use district to lowdensity residential district 1 for property generally described as being located at 3050 Jolly Lane. Second got a motion by Roberts with a second by Tamang to approve. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 33, first reading of ordinance number 6710, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code. A request by Rener Associates LLC for S7, excuse me, LLC for resoning requests from no use district to general commercial district for property property generally described as being located at 3050 Jolly Lane.

Second. Got a motion by Roberts with a second by Secrets to approve. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 34, first reading of ordinance number 6711, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rapid City Municipal Code. A request by Advanced Design Engineering and Surveying Inc. for Black Hills Cap or BH Capital LLC for reszoning request from General Agricultural District to Lowdensity Residential District 2 for property generally described as being located south of the intersection of Cadillac Drive and Diamond Ridge Boulevard. Okay, Matt. Motion by Cris with a second by Meyer. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 35, first reading of ordinance number 6712, an ordinance amending section 17.06 06 of the Rap City Municipal Code. A request by V4 Properties LLC for reszoning request from general commercial district to light industrial district for property generally described as being located at 2526 Marlin Drive. Motion by Secret, second by Tang. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 36, approve resolution 2026-031, the creation of Pennington County of a tax increment financing district, TIFF district number 8 within the city of Rapid City pursuant to SDCL uh 111-9-8. And councelor Tmain, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I uh really appreciated the passion on this topic and uh you know, Ron's a smart guy, a lot of experience. I appreciate that and I'll try to take everything he said into consideration. Um, when it comes to um tax recommend financing the district, especially when it's complicated with relations with the county and developers, uh, I think the constituents demand us to be prudent. Um, and I think that's what we should aim to do. um legal and finance. I think we had a very good discussion regarding kind of what degree of control um the city should have over this process and while we still seek to be good partners with county and work together uh as a whole. So um I I think we have more time to learn about this. I had a good conversation with the developers. I I looked through the information that has been available and uh there's a lot about this particular project that really seems positive. But like I said, I think the word when it comes to tax increment financing is is prudence. And then the second thing that I think the constituents really want to see is communication. Now, communication can get folks fired up, but I think that's important. And I think being out in front of it as representatives um to present what's what's being decided is also very important. And so obviously there's uh technique to doing that is maximum tr truth seeeking is possible. and I'll continue to do that to the best of my abilities. Thank you.

All right. Uh, next up, Councelor Maher. Uh, well, first I would like to make a motion that we delay this vote for two weeks. And I'd like to retain the floor if I could get a second. Second. All right. We have a Well, I guess I know where that's going. We have a motion by Maher. We're give the second to Meyer. The floor is yours, sir.

Yes. I do I do think this one kind of snuck up on us. Uh, I've studied a lot the last several days and um I think it's an excellent tiff. I would vote yes tonight, but we're not actually we weren't actually going to vote on the tiff. We were just going to vote on a resolution to yield to the county because we can't pass this tiff as a city, but the county can because we can't pass a tiff on land that's not in the city. The county can pass land on land in the city because we're in the county. So, it makes perfect sense. The county volunteered to help us with this and I think we should build our partnership with Pennington County. There were a couple things that came up at legal and finance that I was concerned about, but I've seen the plan. I've seen the drawings. This puts retail shopping south of Catron in an area that we could fill in. And you know, the people that live over there, if they want to go shopping, about 80 over 80% of our retail is along I90, within a quarter of a mile of I90. be nice to have a shopping district south of Catron. Uh, but this not only does that, but there was something made about a red flag and the red flag was, "Oh my god, the county says they're going to put their maintenance facility in there." Um, I talked to the county. They said, "No, we we we want some we need some land on this deal, but we we're fine talking with the city and putting our county maintenance facility in conjunction with the city or next to the city out on Highway 79, which makes more sense. So, there's another thing we gain. It's already been done, but the county has already sold their uh v maintenance facility downtown across from the courthouse, which is using up a lot of valuable space in what is the future of the desk or the um innovation district. That land the county sold the school of minds now owns that. So, this is really a great tiff. not only opens up this 175 acres, but it extends Fifth

Street in Black Hills Boulevard out to two other large very large parcels of land for future development. So, I will be supporting this. I would like two more weeks so that we so I haven't had a chance to meet with the developers. I understand they're very successful. It's a Nebraska company that does this. I'd like to meet with them, but I really would like to bring this back in two weeks and vote on it to pass. Thank you. Uh, thank you. Next up, Council Roberts.

Thank you. And thank you, Kevin, for everything you said on that. I think that was great. And yes, we're not we're not voting on the TIFF. We're voting on turning this over so the county can actually set up a TID district. So then they can bring in the TIFF plan. So we can look at the TIFF plan. The county can look at the TIFF plan. So there's really nothing here yet except for setting up a TID district. Now the city has been working with this developer for quite some time now. I would guess about a year. Is that close to the time you've been working on with them? Eight months.

Eight months. And it's interesting because it's my every from everything I've heard on it, the city would love to have brought this tiff forward, but that wasn't possible with the land owner. Um, and I know the landowner very well, very very well. I've worked with the land worked with him for years in the past. Um, I know him from my role on the council. I know of the lawsuits that there have been with this landowner. I know I know all the backstory on this and I know exactly why he wants to do this because he will not annex his land into Rapid City because he dislikes Rapid City so much that he will not allow that to happen. So that's why we are working with the county and giving this to the county. But there's a lot of benefit to that, too. I mean, we're going to look at it. Now, the county has got to take over the tiff and they've got to manage it all. They've got to do everything which our departments don't have to do. But we're getting all the benefit of this tiff. Now, Mr. Tang, you're going to lose a little control over it. But really, you're not because we still have all of we still control all the zoning. We control all the platting. We control every step of this going forward except for the tiff plan itself. Well, if it's a bad tiff plan, then guess what? I'll be there to help you kill it. I've killed a lot of tiffs in my 15 years on the city council that were bad tiffs, you know, but usually it was before they came forward, you know, and usually it wasn't at the TID process before we even saw the TIFF plan. I think it's very important if you want to be open, you want to be honest with the community

about a tiff, let's at least see the tiff itself first before we try to kill it. So that's just my opinion and 15 years of education. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? All right. Well, the motion on the floor is to continue this for two weeks. Uh with that, all in favor?

Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 37, as a reminder, has been removed and placed under the public hearing in 44B. So, we will move on to item 38. Approve resolution number 2026-025, amendment number one to the project plan for t tax increment financing district 89. Motion by secrets with a second by Roberts. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 39, authorize issuance of a request for proposal for the sports fieldhouse architecture and engineering services.

Got a motion by Strowman with a second by Meyer to approve. The floor is your sir. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Demo, could I get you to um explain briefly why this is important and if you need to have Dave or Mr. Skull or anybody else address it, I think feel free to do so. Um, I'm gonna um defer to Daniel Anley, finance director as well. Go ahead. Uh, director Oops. Chime back in, please. Finance director Daniel Anley.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Demo. Uh this is kind of just the next step in the process before we're actually able to uh develop the Seymar contract um with a construction manager at risk or even really develop our final budget. We need to have an architectural and engineering um firm at on hand so that we can actually finalize the designs um on this. There's a lot of site work that we know needs to be uh completed. There's also uh some public input sessions that we would like to have and so this is just allowing us to proceed um to be able to get that um those professionals on board. We are uh working to do more of these sorts of services in house, but this is a very large complex building that frankly uh we don't have the expertise to be able to do that inhouse. And so that's why we're um attempting to go through this process. And just for addition again, this is we still have some things to finalize um particularly the land donation agreement. This just helps us through the process to ensure that we don't uh lose any more uh time because time is money and as we continue to uh go through the process, this helps us make up some of that time.

Thank you. Yeah, I think this is a logical next step for us to do and we don't want to lose any more time because um you're right, De Mo Demo, time is money. Things don't get cheaper with time and so I think that as part of a um conscientious u planning for this uh project, we need to move ahead with this and so I'll be in support of this. I yield. All right, with that the motion on the floor is to approve. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 40, a request by Long Branch Civil Engineering, Inc. for Muth Holdings LLC for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lot 20R of block 1, lot 24A of uh lot Hey, could you get you folks? You're kind of distracting me. I'm sorry. Lot 24 A. Uh, lot 24B. Lot 24 C. Lot 24D. Lot 24E. Lot 24 F. Lot 24G. Lot 24 H. Lot 24 I. Lot 24J. Lot 24K and lot 24 L of block 2 of Whisper Ridge subdivision generally described as being located at the western terminus of uh Pinnacle Court. The recommendation is to approve of stipulations.

Motion by Roberts with a second by layman to approve of stipulations. It's all in favor. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 41, a request by Respect LLC for Black Hills Habitat for Humanity for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lots 1 through 17 of block 1 and lots 1 through 23 and common area of block two of East Creek Village subdivision generally described as being located at 1727 Creek Drive. The recommendations to approve with stipulations and councelor Maher, you have the floor, sir. Thank you, mayor. I I would like to make a motion to approve this. Uh if I could get a second, I'd retain the floor. Is that with stipulations? Um yes.

All right. And so the motion's by Maher with a second by Crisis. The floor is yours. Yeah. I mean, I see Scott's in the audience. And you know, we've been working on he's been working on this project Habitat has for years. I remember seeing the seeing it four or five years ago. And it's finally coming through and we need to get this done. We need to get this approved. It's it's uh a lot of workforce housing, town houses. These are not apartments. They're going in a lot that's been vacant for years and years. I don't know if anything's ever been on that lot. It's right off of St. Patrick. This is great infill. I support it 100%. All right. Uh Councelor Strowman.

Thank you, Mayor. And I'm following up on that. Um if Miss Henman would take the microphone and just briefly tell us what this is. cuz I know you've been working on it for years and years and years, but don't take years and years to explain it.

Uh well, thank you uh council members, mayor. Thank you for the opportunity. Um yeah, just briefly, this is a uh four and a quarter acre site that's an infill project with all the utilities surrounding it. And um we've worked really hard to create a plan that will uh give us an affordable home ownership uh on-ramp for people and it'll be a mixed income project. So half of it would be geared toward people earning up to 80% of area median 25% up to 100% of area median and then 25% up to 119 120% of very median which means mixed income and that is really the best way to develop uh affordable home ownership and uh we think this site is just spoton and it's been great working with Dion and and I appreciate the city staff and all the input we've been getting. It's been really a good process so far and looking forward to getting it over the finish line and actually moving some dirt this summer. I hope. Any questions?

I I just want to commend you for your persistence. You've been relent relentless in this and and I think it is a really good project and um I'm glad that you stuck to it and I think we're going to get there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up, uh Councelor Roberts.

Thank you. I think it's a great location. In fact, I think it's such a great location seven years ago. I tried to do a project on it, but it was it was thrown out from the council and from the staff because they required we did a million dollars worth of work to Creek Drive, which we couldn't afford in that project, which would have been affordable housing. Anyway, I think that it's great. Infield lot needs to be done. I I'm glad that, you know, it's going to be finally done something on that property. This is a good example of what we need to do in the city for our infill lots. I think that this council is a lot different than councils in the past. I think it's a lot different mayor than mayors in the past. I think that we're looking at a lot of development way to push development and things that are important to develop in Rapid City. I wish I would have brought this project forward three years later or four years later, but I'm glad that Scott's getting it. I'm I think he'll do a good job on it. Thank you.

Uh yeah, I echo that, Scott. You brought this to my attention when I was on the city council. I'm sorry it took so long. Um, but I think a lot of lessons are learned about how to try we try to do things in a responsible way, of course. And John's right. I mean, uh, the message here tonight with this vote is the infill development for for lots within the existing city limits, um, can be better utilized and the mixed use is how you get to affordable housing. And so, uh, it's a it's a good project and I know you've been very patient, you and your team. And so, thank you to city team, uh, for all their assistance on that as well. Um but with that the vote on the floor is to approve. All in favor?

Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Item 42. A request by TUI Design Group for Watershed Development 2 LLC for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lots 27 28 and 28A of block one of High Point Ranch North subdivision. Generally described as being located north of Cloud Peak. The recommendations to approve with stipulations. Move to approve with. Okay. Okay, we got a motion by Roberts with a second by Tain to approve of stipulations. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. 43. A request by Advanced Design Engineering and Surveying Inc. for BH Capital LLC for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lots 3 through six of block 5 and dedicated rightway of Diamond Ridge subdivision generally described as being located south of the intersection of Diamond Ridge Boulevard south of Cadillac Drive. The recommendations to approve with stipulations. approve stipulations. Got a motion by Roberts with a second by Secrets to approve with stipulations. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to the end of those items and we will move on to public hearing items 44 through 45 and open the public hearing for items 44 through 45. And I have no speaker request forms for those items. So, we will close the public hearing and move on to Yep. move on to consent item 44. I'll just read it in since it's the only one. Rapid Smash LLC doing business as I smash Rapid City. Just wanted to say Smash a bunch of times. Uh 625 Main Street for new retail onoff sale wine and cider license and a new retail onoff sale malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine license.

Motion by Meer with a second by Chris. All in favor? Any opposed? Uh motion carries. And we'll also go to 44B which is actually on listed in number 37. Approve resolution number 2026-026 authorizing the issuance of sales tax revenue bonds of the city pledging a portion of the sales tax receipts of the city of uh of the city to the payment of said bonds authorizing officers of the city to approve execute and deliver certain agreements and documents relating to the bonds. And with that we're going to go to finance director Daniel Aninsley.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, I just want to note that uh we did open the public hearing on that and that there were no uh residents or anyone that wanted to speak in favor of that or uh wanted to speak uh regarding that issue. Just want to make sure that the record uh shows that. And then also uh just to let the council know that this is not for any additional allocation of the vision fund. this um only is to continue the uh the work that the council already did a couple months ago when you allocated funds out of the vision fund for the next up to 30 years uh for the airport terminal expansion project. Okay, Council Roberts,

thank you very much. And Daniel, um listening to legal and finance, you gave a lot better description. I wish you'd I wish you'd give that here because there's more people that are watching and listening in on this and legal and finance. Yeah. Well, we're going to get the full bounty from I think it's important. Let's go.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um uh the item before you uh authorizes up to almost u it's $59.35 million in principal um for a bond issuance. Um $15 million of that is actually for um it we are pledging uh sales tax proceeds that is in the vision fund. Uh we are doing that because our bond rating is higher um as a municipality than the airport. And so we are technically um pledging the revenue from that but we will have a separate agreement with the airport so that annually we will be getting those additional funds from the airport to backfill the vision fund. I hope that made sense. Um but by doing so that will be saving the airport about 2.5 to$2.6 million um over the life of the bonds. Um and uh what this is going to do is going to allow us to leverage uh state resources as well as a very large federal uh grant that uh the city has received. Um I think largely uh due to our senators um who have uh been significant advocates for the airport. Um but this is going to allow the uh airport terminal project to continue. I apologize. I don't remember the exact number of additional gates that it's going to have. I think it's two or three additional gates and there are going to be larger gates that will uh facilitate larger jets uh that would be able to make use of the um of the existing terminal. So, I hope that's enough of a uh presentation.

All right, back to you, Council Ro. I I just wanted the financial part of it because I know that uh you know people are interested very interested when we float a bond that's that big. But I think that the thing that should be taken away from it is the reason that we're doing a portion of that through the city is because we get a lot better interest rate because our bond rating is higher and the airport will be paying back that portion to the city. So, and I do want to give Daniel kudos because I know other financial directors that I worked with in the past on the city council would have never thought of this or came up with this idea and he has saved the city millions and millions and millions of dollars since he's been his in his position. So, I give him credit for that. I give people on this council credit for some of us for hiring him. I think he's done a great job. I think he continues to do a great job and I Yeah, I think it's fantastic. Thank you.

All right. Uh, any other comments with that? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Thank you. And Heidi, as a reminder, that's 44B, the 37 to 44B for the minutes. All right, that takes us to non consent public hearing item 45, second reading of ordinance number 6708, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code, a request by Christopher and Jod Smith for reszoning requests from general commercial district to medium density residential district for property generally described as being located at 810 Fair View Street. Motion by Roberts with a second by Layman. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Next, we're going to move on to the bill list at item 46. And with that, we'll go to finance director Daniel Aninsley. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, the first set of bills is for Main Street Square and Visit Rapid City. Uh, they total $94,193.73. Motion by layman with a second by Secrets to approve. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries with one abstension from Meyer. Item 47. Back to finance director Daniel Ansley. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The remaining bills total 20,629,381.7.

Got a motion by Meyer, second by Bieber. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion by Strowman, second by Tam to adjurnn. All in favor? Any opposed? We'rejourned. Thanks, everyone.