The final version of the city’s Sustainable Sioux Falls “framework” will be presented to city councilors Tuesday, more than a year after the plan was originally announced and several months after controversial changes were made to the plan some groups said had stripped the document of any meaningful goals.
A letter from Mayor Paul TenHaken precedes the 40-page document released Friday, stating the importance of continuing ongoing efforts toward “conserving South Dakota.”
Conservation plan put on hold to include perspective from utilities entities, builders and auto industry
TenHaken first announced the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan in a March 2022 press conference, with a stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by the year 2030 and getting to net-zero emissions by 2050.
“We’ve never been bold enough … but now we know how to work backward from that goal,” TenHaken said at the press conference.
It was only a few weeks before that plan was put on hold.
“The topic of climate change, conservation, or sustainability—however you phrase it—can becomea polarizing and political topic,” TenHaken writes, mentioning the pushback that occurred upon the initial release of the plan due to what he refers to as “perceived mandates and ordinance changes,” and concerns that “some very key and necessary voices were left out of the conversation.”
City officials have said some of those voices included natural gas and electric utilities, home builders, the automotive and trucking industries and commercial businesses.
“We didn’t scrap the plan all together because conservation is an important topic that needs to be addressed,” TenHaken writes. “And the framework that’s presented today is what’s right for Sioux Falls.”
Sioux Falls turned down federal grant to reduce greenhouse gases
TenHaken also writes in the letter, “Sustainability is not a one-size-fits-all approach even if the federal government makes it seem that way with enticing grants.”
That’s a reference to earlier this year, when the city decided against opting into a federal grant program that would have provided Sioux Falls with $1 million to help create plans to reduce greenhouse gases, with Sustainability Coordinator Holly Meier saying, “these federal dollars have numerous requirements that would ultimately take away the focus from the City’s current and planned sustainability efforts.”
Current framework excludes mention of ‘climate change’ and ‘greenhouse gas’
The framework names five focus areas: Natural Systems, Materials Management and Waste, Community Vitality and Sustainable Living, Energy and Buildings and Transportation and Land Use. A sixth focus area, Sustainable Economy, was present in the original plan but is no longer part of the framework.
Each area has specific goals, along with a series of actions to be implemented by either the city, a public-private collaboration or the community — some already ongoing, others as far away as 2031.
Outside of a few changes to some of the framework’s implementation strategies, the final document is largely similar to the one that drew outcry from a number of Sioux Falls organizations earlier this year, leading to an open letter to TenHaken.
The letter said the 30-member Sustainability Steering Committee tasked with reworking the plan after its first delay had arrived at a list of 71 actions in December 2022, but were informed on Feb. 23 the plan had been replaced with the framework, eliminating a third of the proposed actions, using weaker language and eliminating the words “climate change” and “greenhouse gas.”
“We are deeply concerned that this ‘framework’ will obscure and delay real action on challenges that are impacting our communities today,” the letter read. “We believe that a ‘plan’ which allows the City to hide behind vague platitudes while achieving no meaningful action is ultimately worse than no plan at all.”
Michael Heisler, a member of the Sustainability Steering Committee and the chair of SoDak 350 did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the framework.
“The decision to gut the Sustainable Sioux Falls Plan undermines the good-faith effort of a committee representing the full spectrum of stakeholders to agree on a plan that helps clear the path toward a sustainable future for all of Sioux Falls,” Heisler said in March.
Meier will present the plan to the Sioux Falls City Council at their Tuesday meeting, which will be held at 3 p.m. at Carnegie Town Hall. The council will then vote on adoption of the plan later this year.
Read More: Sioux Falls City Council will see ‘Sustainable Sioux Falls’ plan