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Developer and city dispute excavation shutdown; Sioux City Tarp expansion awaiting permit resolution
Summary
A developer said city staff ordered a stop to excavation work on the Sioux City Tarp project after conflicting instructions from city employees; the developer said Daryl (city staff) gave permission to proceed, while city staff and the city engineer called police and halted work; the mayor said he will follow up personally.
A contractor and property owner told the council the Sioux City Tarp expansion site was shut down after conflicting directions from city staff, and asked the council to improve interdepartmental communication so construction can proceed.
Developer Paul Koskovich told the council his team had permission from a city staffer named Daryl on Friday to proceed with site work but that a city engineer later ordered workers to stop. “Daryl gave us permission on Friday to proceed,” Koskovich said. He said Gordon Fair, the city engineer, showed up and told workers to stop and that the police were called to the site.
Koskovich said the shutdown disrupted work on a planned 30,000-square-foot Sioux City Tarp building, left rented equipment idle and delayed the project. He asked for clearer lines of communication and asked the city to prioritize approval so the project “can go vertical.”
City staff and council members acknowledged communication failures but did not identify a single authorizing directive to shut the job down in the transcript. A city official said police spoke with the on-site staff after a city engineer raised concerns; there was also mention that the city attorney was consulted. A council member said they did not have a full explanation: “I don't have a good explanation. I know you want one. I don't have one, Paul.”
Developers and council members said Daryl had reviewed imaging and believed the excavation would not disturb a sanitary line; others identified a sanitary line near the area and argued more caution was appropriate. Brad (utilities director) and Gordon Fair (city engineer) were named in the discussion as the staff who responded at the site; Koskovich asked that those staff coordinate better with his team.
Mayor (name not specified in the transcript) told the developer he would follow up personally the next morning to check the project’s status. No permit action or formal enforcement decision was recorded on the council floor during public comment; the item remained a dispute between contractor and city staff requiring internal follow-up.
Koskovich said the developer had used Nelson Engineering on the project and had previously attended a Development Review Committee meeting about the site; he asked the city to streamline building-permit review and communications for local projects.
