New Tea Development Director finds familiar ground in growing community

The city’s new community development director started about a month ago on March 18.

Albert Schmidt, a Sioux Falls native, got his bachelor’s degree in economics and political science at the University of South Dakota before going back for his master’s in public administration. 

He got his career started in Harrisburg as their first-ever planning and zoning administrator in 2008. Schmidt spent four and a half years in Harrisburg before becoming a zoning enforcement officer in Sioux Falls and then an urban planner. He spent 12 and a half years with the City of Sioux Falls.

Taking the community development director role in Tea reminds him of his time in Harrisburg.

“The role is similar in that you’re in charge of a really wide swath of stuff from code enforcement to getting permits permitted to building code, making sure it’s getting inspected correctly to looking long term, what do we want to look like in 40 years,” Schmidt said. “That’s a pretty wide view and for one or two people to be focused in on that it means they have to know at least a little bit about a lot.”

After working for the City of Sioux Falls for more than a decade, his role was getting well defined but taking the community development director role in Tea gave him the opportunity to manage and provide a large scale review for that community.

“One of the biggest things that I think was really appealing for me was it’s a growing community with a good support base and the opportunity to grow that out there and be a part of that growth and set that up for future success is very appealing,” he said.

When Schmidt started, he worked with planning and zoning administrator Kevin Nissen for three weeks. Schmidt appreciated how open and giving of information Nissen was in the first few weeks.

“He was upfront in saying this is what we’ve done, not saying it’s the best way, not saying it’s the worst way just saying here’s what we’ve done,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said he has many goals to make his office scalable. He realizes what they do today maybe isn’t in the ordinance as it potentially should be. They are trying to review a full new zoning ordinance. He believes that an ordinance should be a living document.

They are also working on finalizing the comprehensive plan this summer.

Schmidt looks forward to moving to Tea with his wife and son within the next couple of months.