Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the First District Briefing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
First District Association briefs county on local grant wins and zoning bill that could change township notifications
Summary
Todd Case of the First District Association of Local Governments outlined the district's recent grant and loan activity for Brookings County and discussed pending House Bill 1261, which would change county notification requirements to townships for certain conditional use and right-of-way impacts.
Todd Case, executive director of the First District Association of Local Governments, presented a briefing on the association’s role, funding and recent projects affecting Brookings County and the surrounding region.
Case said the First District is one of six regional planning and development districts in South Dakota and described its funding model (membership dues, state contracts and fee-for-service work). He said the district facilitated roughly $84 million in grants and loans system-wide in the most recent year and that about $18.4 million in grants and loans went to Brookings County projects last year, of which $13.3 million were grant dollars. Case listed water, sewer and community-access grants across Brookings County communities and noted the district assists with grant packaging, GIS, revolving loan funds and planning support.
Case also briefed the commission on House Bill 1261, which he described as proposed legislation to clarify and reinforce county ability to craft conditional-use design requirements that address impacts on township and county roads (for example, drag lines or slurry lines used in CAFO operations). He said the bill would require applicants to notify affected townships before filing a county application and would require counties to notify townships when adopting new rules; he framed the change as an added notice step rather than a transfer of final decision-making authority. Case said townships in some counties oppose the bill because they view it as encroaching on their authority; he noted litigation in Lincoln County over similar road-use issues.
Commissioners asked procedural and policy questions about how notification would work, whether fees or requirements would be mandatory, and how the county would work with townships on road agreements. Case said the bill aims to provide more certainty for infrastructure and road-use agreements rather than remove final county authority to permit uses or pull conditional-use permits if conditions are violated.
No formal county action was taken on HB 1261; Case encouraged commissioners to follow the bill as it proceeds through the legislature.
