Dozens of streets closed since 2010. How can Sioux Falls balance housing with development?

The streets in Jannelle Cain's central Sioux Falls neighborhood are quiet.

But she's afraid the nearby Lifescape's plans to close a stretch of a residential street could change that.

The row of houses that once separated Cain's home from the nonprofit that serves people with disabilities is already gone, and soon Elmwood Avenue between 26th and 28th Street could be a thing of the past, too.

That type of neighborhood evolution isn't unique to Cain's part of the city. With expanding hospitals, businesses and nonprofits in established neighborhoods throughout town, balancing development and neighborhood preservation is a challenge city officials and community leaders are increasingly facing.

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Lifescape is outgrowing its campus of more than 70 years. So last year a swath of houses it owned to the west of its property at 2501 W. 26th St. were moved out of the neighborhood to open up space for a future parking lot, and part of the plan was targeting Elmwood Avenue for permanent closure.

City engineers and urban planners vetted the proposed changes to traffic, drainage and infrastructure if the street closes, as well as the effect on the neighborhood and streets around it. The plan also has Mayor Paul TenHaken's blessing.

But not everyone is on board. Folks like Cain and a few city councilors who are being asked to give their blessing for the permanent road closure during a meeting Tuesday night remain hesitant — or outright resistant in some cases — to the plan.

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Cain has repeatedly lobbied the council in recent months to stand in the way of the plan, citing concerns about the potential for increased traffic on other streets as a result.

Councilor Theresa Stehly's qualms with the plan center on neighborhood preservation and, more philosophically, the reduction in the city's stock of modest and affordable housing any time institutions like Lifescape or Sioux Falls' two major health systems expand their footprints in the city's core. 

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Stehly's not wrong that the growth of the campuses of Sanford Health, Avera Health and a handful of other nonprofits and businesses in the core of the city have long-range planning to purchase property on their perimeters while prospecting future expansion.

And when they're ready to add parking lots and buildings, street vacations often follow.

Dozens of streets closed in the last decade

Since 2010, the City Council has signed off on 56 resolutions authorizing the closures of streets, alleyways and right of ways. While many of those were in industrial-use areas, dozens were in once-residential zones in core neighborhoods.

In Sanford Health's part of the city, at least 50 blocks of street or right of way closures have occured, according to city planning documents. And Avera Health's growth accounts for dozens more.

But city and hospital officials say they're sensitive to neighborhood preservation and the need for housing in the community, pointing to the years of back and forth with city planners.

"They're not naive to the challenges created by the removal of our existing housing stock in our core," Erica Beck, chief of staff in the mayor's office, said about the groups doing the expanding.

Kris Denevan, Sanford Health's executive director of facilities, and Tom Bosch, vice president of hospitality for Avera, both said their organizations' growth aligns with the city's population influx. More people means more patients, and they're keeping up.

And that means expanding not just outward from its campus, but up as well.

"We go up on buildings, we add floors to buildings, and we have an underground tunnel infrastructure," she said.

Devenan couldn't say exactly how much more growth Sanford has planned for its central Sioux Falls campus, but noted that they own several homes and properties around it.

And when it's time for those homes to go away to make room for new buildings and parking lots, Sanford works with the tenants who live in them to find alternate, affordable housing. 

Like Sanford, Avera will always choose to relocate a house instead of tearing it down, Bosch said, pointing to several homes sold and moved to different locations in and around Sioux Falls in recent years.

Bosch said there's no timeline for expanding into the neighborhood where it owns dozens of homes west of Cliff Avenue between 24th and 26th Streets. Avera's primary focus right now is building in other areas of the city like south Louise Avenue, Marion Road and 26th Street, and any other population hub that springs up in Sioux Falls.

Balancing neighborhood and business needs

As far as closing streets, any street vacation applicant must go through the proper channels working with the city and holding neighborhood meetings to vet the impacts.

"If it's not a good fit for a neighborhood, we say no," Beck said.

Stehly doesn't think the city says no enough, though, and she wants to see the reins tightened on institutional campus expansion.

She points to Sanford and Avera, as well as other past and future developments that deplete a neighborhood's housing stock. Billion Automotive removed a handful of homes and closed a stretch of south Duluth Avenue to expand its car lot near 41st Street and Minnesota Avenue. And the Presentation Sisters' plans for a 20-room housing facility south of the Walsh Family Village near Avera Health’s central Sioux Falls campus will force the removal of at least a few homes.

Others core institutions likely to expand in the coming years include Augustana University, the University of Sioux Falls and Bethany Home just east of Lifescape.

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"We've lost huge chunks of homes ... and I think at some point we've got to put our foot down and say enough," Stehly said. "We need to stand up for the preservation of these neighborhoods."

Beck admits removing houses from developed neighborhoods causes some heartburn among housing advocates, but takes issue with pitting organizations against the neighborhoods they've been serving and operating in for decades.

Lifescape's first facility at its 26th Street location was built in 1947 when it was in an empty field. And Avera has been in the McKennan neighborhood for more than a century.

Karl Fulmer, executive director of the Sioux Falls Housing and Redevelopment Commission, said the city leaders who are tasked with rejecting and approving street vacations and rezones need to take each on a case-by-case basis and balance the benefits an expanding business or nonprofit brings with other needs of the community.

"As long as those that can make policy … are aware of the issues and not turning a blind eye to them, that's what's critical,' he said.