City staff and their consultant presented draft trends for the SHAPE Sioux Falls 2050 comprehensive plan at the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting on July 15, outlining housing, mobility, conservation, economic development, community resources and infrastructure as the plan’s six core priorities and saying the city will return the draft to the public for review.

Why it matters: The SHAPE 2050 plan will guide land use, transportation and capital decisions for the next 25 years in Sioux Falls and nearby jurisdictions; the council and staff said the draft will be reviewed again with the public and the advisory committee before coming to elected officials for formal approval.

Kevin Smith, planning manager with Planning and Development Services, told the council the SHAPE effort complements regional work such as the Go Sioux Falls metro transportation planning effort and is intended as "a little more in-depth look at the next 25 years of growth and development, bringing forth policies and goals and objectives, things that we've heard from the community." Chris Shires, a planner with Confluence, summarized the draft trends developed from public engagement and a statistically valid community survey.

Shires presented six major trends the team heard: 1) housing and neighborhoods (support for housing at multiple price points and preserving existing neighborhoods); 2) transportation and mobility (walking, biking, transit, traffic safety and right-sizing parking); 3) conservation and resiliency (parks, trails, resilient public facilities and drought-tolerant landscaping); 4) economic development (infill, mixed use, downtown and biotech/healthcare focus); 5) community resources (services for people experiencing homelessness, education, childcare and indoor recreation); and 6) infrastructure and public spaces (design standards, street and utility planning and maintenance).

Shires told the council the team used pop-up events, neighborhood meetings, focus groups, stakeholder interviews and an online engagement site to collect input and that the next step is to return draft chapters to the public and the advisory committee. "The goal being that and we're on track to wrap this up at the end of the year, that we'll have the draft done at the end of the year and then we can go through that official approval process the beginning of next year," he said.

Councilors pressed for clarification on several items. Councilor Sigheti asked about apparent differences between survey results and the draft trend priorities, noting that "39% of the people talked about was addressing maintenance and repair across the city" in early survey results and asking why maintenance appeared lower in the presentation’s list; Shires said the trend list was not presented as a strict rank order and that subcategories (including maintenance) had been prioritized internally and would be clarified in follow-up public vetting. Councilor Thomason asked whether respondents specified what they meant by "indoor recreation;" Shires said in-person and online comments used general terms such as "community center" and occasionally listed activities such as hockey or indoor courts but that the input was largely generalized and would be followed up.

City staff and the consultant also emphasized regional coordination: Smith said the SHAPE plan is being developed in coordination with nearby jurisdictions—Tea, Harrisburg, Brandon, Hartford and Crookston—to align long-range land use and transportation plans.

What comes next: Staff and consultants said they will schedule additional in-person and online review opportunities and update the city's SHAPE web pages and the online engagement site so residents and neighborhood groups can review draft chapters and submit comments. The team indicated the draft should be completed by the end of 2025 and then enter the city's formal approval process in early 2026.

The council did not take any formal action on the plan at the July 15 meeting; the presentation was informational and staff described further public outreach and draft revisions as the next steps.