Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Comprehensive Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Yankton consultant says recent growth and housing demand are reshaping the city’s comprehensive plan
Summary
RDG Planning & Design told a Yankton City public meeting the city is ‘midstream’ in rewriting its comprehensive plan, reporting recent permit activity and demographic shifts that increase near-term housing demand and require land‑use choices; staff and consultants plan a spring open house and ongoing online engagement.
YANKTON, S.D. — City planning staff and consultants updated residents Tuesday on a midstream rewrite of Yankton’s comprehensive plan, saying recent building activity and demographic shifts mean planners must prioritize housing supply, connectivity and public‑facility needs.
“We’re in the process of updating or rewriting our comprehensive plan,” said Dave Mingo, a city planner, who introduced the presentation and urged residents to use the online survey and interactive map to provide input. RDG Planning & Design senior planner Amy Hazy told the meeting the plan should be “a high‑level vision document” that guides—but does not rigidly mandate—zoning and capital decisions.
Hazy said the plan serves a legal and practical role: zoning and land‑use decisions should be grounded in an adopted plan so they are not arbitrary, and the plan also offers a shared vision for housing, transportation, parks and economic development.
The consultant presented recent data showing in‑migration among 20–24 year olds (linked to Mount Marty) and stronger birth rates among 25–34 year olds, while building‑permit activity over the last four to five years suggests growth closer to a 2% annual rate than the longer‑term 0.6% trend. Under a 1% annual growth scenario, Hazy said the city could approach roughly 19,000 residents by mid‑century and would need about 2,000 housing units over 20 years—roughly 88–93 units a year—figures that feed into land‑need calculations.
“For planning, we identify a ‘hard demand’ of 344 acres and then typically build some market flexibility into the land‑use map,” Hazy said, explaining that planners often double the calculated acreage to provide choices for the market and landowners.
Public engagement to date includes small‑group listening sessions, a community roundtable, a design workshop, and an online survey and interactive map accessible from the city website. Hazy said the project is roughly “midstream,” and the team plans another open house in the spring to present draft map options and collect reaction.
Residents asked practical questions about ordinance changes, the timeline for adoption and where to find the current plan; staff replied the 2003 comprehensive plan remains the operative document until an updated plan is adopted and that project materials and the survey are linked from the city website.
What happens next: the consultant expects to synthesize recent engagement and data into draft land‑use recommendations, hold a public open house and post materials online for continued comment before bringing formal recommendations to the planning commission and city decision‑makers.
