City holds first readings on two ordinances

The Tea City Council met Feb. 17 and held first readings on two ordinances. 

City community development director Albert Schmidt presented the first reading of ordinance 331, subdivision ordinance. The ordinance looks at park land and green space. The ordinance would enact a 3 times the fee instead of 1.5 times the fee for money in lieu payments if developers want to pay a fee instead of donating the land for parks. The planning commission recommends approval. The city set the second reading of the ordinance for the March 2 meeting.

In ordinance 335, zoning ordinance, Schmidt presented information on chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 12 and 19. After feedback from the builders association and the public, Schmidt said he tried to keep the ordinance simple with two zoning districts of residential (R-1 and R-2) and natural resource conservation district (NRC). In R-1, he updated it to have permitted special uses already in the ordinance rather than people having to come in for conditional use permits all the time. The planning commission recommends approval. The city set the second reading of the ordinance for the March 2 meeting. Todd Meierhenry from Meierhenry Sargent spoke to the council about a resolution authorizing 501(c)(3) refunding revenue bonds for the University of Sioux Falls. 

He said USF is paying down their existing debt. In the process, the city issues the bonds, four banks buy those bonds, they give it to the city and the city loans it to the university and they use it to pay off their old bonds. They enter into an agreement with the city and assign everything to the banks. These are not obligations of the city and does not affect their credit rating. The city approved the resolution.

The council approved the resolution, Tea TIF district #2 TIF plan amendment #1. City administrator Justin Weiland said the TIF district is in Bakker Landing Addition. He said a TIF plan can be amended within five years of establishment. They looked at the resolution because they recalculated the projects in the addition and recategorized the plans. The original project costs were $5,184,628 and the amended authorized project costs are $6,999,247. With the amended amount, it will be paid down in 12 years, well under the 20 years allowed in a TIF to pay back the debt. Council member Lynn DeYoung said this project is an example that shows TIFs work. It’s benefiting the community and it’s being paid off ahead of schedule.

Weiland also presented a letter of support to send to South Lincoln Rural Water for a proposed regional wastewater system. The city approved the letter that just offers support in name only; the city is not joining the future district.

Schmidt presented a map that showed proposed green space in the comprehensive plan. Since this was informational only, no action was taken at this meeting.

Schmidt also gave the council information while looking for guidance of an overlay district for proposed plans for the old American Bank & Trust location. Since the city received a grant that will help beautify downtown, the council would like to see a better design for the proposed site and different building materials.

Weiland said they met with Lincoln County officials and the city of Lennox about EMS service this week in regard to the proposed ambulance district. The city of Tea is waiting for their commissioned study about ambulance service before they make any commitments.

The council adjourned at 7:11 p.m.