City Asks Community to Help “Shape Sioux Falls”
Published on August 14, 2024
The City of Sioux Falls is updating its comprehensive plan, titled “Shape Sioux Falls 2050,” which will help guide future growth and development in the community. Comprehensive plans are essential tools and encompass a wide range of topics to establish a cohesive vision for a community’s goals and principles. They include recommendations on future development areas, necessary infrastructure upgrades, and enhancements to overall quality of life.
“As a Planning and Development Services department, it’s our responsibility to help guide the city’s future while respecting our past,” said Jeff Eckhoff, Planning and Development Services Director for the City of Sioux Falls. “The comprehensive plan is written by the community, for the community, and serves as a roadmap for where we want to go. We look forward to updating the plan together.”
The City of Sioux Falls first adopted a comprehensive plan in 1950. The currently adopted comprehensive plan, Shape Sioux Falls 2040, was last updated in 2016. Regular updates to a community’s comprehensive plan are considered best practice.
The Shape Sioux Falls 2050 comprehensive plan will also have future zoning implications. Comprehensive plans and zoning codes complement each other by directing community development and are designed to align with one another. The Future Land Use Plan, a critical component of a comprehensive plan, directly influences the types and locations of preferred development within a community. While the comprehensive plan provides broad goals and policies guiding development and growth preferences, the zoning code establishes specific rules and regulations governing land use.
The update process will have three primary components: public engagement, data analysis, and drafting updates to the document itself. To facilitate this work, the City of Sioux Falls hired an external consultant, Confluence, which has worked with the City on other community projects.
“We are excited to work with the City of Sioux Falls to create a roadmap for its continued growth and success that reflects the desires and values of the community,” said Christopher Shires, principal and project manager for Confluence.
The work to update the plan is anticipated to take about 18 months to complete. The public engagement phase will begin now and continue through the end of the year. After reviewing and analyzing community feedback, Confluence will develop a draft plan for the public to review, which is anticipated to begin in quarter two of 2025.
Public engagement will include a mix of in-person and online opportunities. Community listening sessions, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, pop-up events, neighborhood workshops, and open houses will be utilized for in-person engagement, and an interactive engagement website will be available throughout the process. Additionally, a statistically valid survey will be conducted to collect input from at least 300 residents across Sioux Falls.
The first in-person events will be the community listening sessions, facilitated by Confluence, held Monday, September 9, at the Ronning Library (3100 East 49th Street) and Wednesday, September 11, at the Caille Library (4100 South Carnegie Circle), both from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend.
A current list of upcoming events is available online. For more information and to access the project’s engagement website, visit www.siouxfalls.gov/shapesf2050.