Category: Local politics
-
The Exception That Has An Exception: The Public Works Agenda Anomaly
Rapid City, S.D. – On Tuesday, June 30 at 12:30 p.m., the Rapid City Public Works Committee will hear what the agenda describes as a routine appeal. The item is listed as Exception 26EX042 — a request to not dedicate right-of-way or construct a Collector Street for the Deadwood Avenue Commercial Subdivision and Farrar Business…
-
A Developer, A TIF, and A Landowner – A Rapid City Zoning Tale
Paul E. Evans didn’t mince words.On June 18, one week before the Rapid City Planning Commission was scheduled to consider five simultaneous rezoning requests covering 127.95 acres of undeveloped land north of Mall Drive, Evans — president of McMahon Investment Inc. — filed a formal written protest with the City’s Department of Community Development. It…
-
Before You Count Your Eggs: What Rapid City Hen Owners Need to Know About Ordinance 6723
The April Victory In April, the Rapid City City Council voted to allow urban hen keeping, and the Sentinel was there to walk you through what that meant — six hens, no roosters, backyard only, coop 25 feet from neighboring homes. A win for residents who fought hard for it. What most people don’t know…
-
The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored
On June 15, 2026, The Rapid City Sentinel submitted a formal press questionnaire to both campaigns competing in South Dakota’s first-ever gubernatorial runoff election. The questions were sent to Governor Larry Rhoden’s spokesperson Ian Fury and to Toby Doeden’s campaign at their public press address with a follow up email sent June 20,2026. The deadline…
-
The Droehdon-A-Saurus – An Editorial Cartoon
The Runoff Plurality of Silence: The Gubernatorial Questionnaire They Ignored
-
The Opaqueness of Transparency – Editorial Cartoon
Rapid City’s Ordinance 6717 folds an existing Code of Conduct into municipal law, but complaints against elected officials stay sealed in executive session by default, with no guarantee the public ever learns the outcome.
-
What is Burning Next to Rapid City’s Neighborhoods? Inside the 25 Year GCC Dacotah Zoning Void
The Collateral Damage of Small Town USA Growing up, the shadow of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant was a constant, quiet hum in the background of my childhood. You learn early on what it feels like to live next to an environmental wild card—a facility where the true cost of “production” isn’t always something…
-
RETRO-ZONED: Rapid City is Changing the Map to Match the Ground for GCC Dacotah
RAPID CITY, SD – On June 4, 2026, the Rapid City Planning Commission considered four simultaneous rezoning requests covering 562.68 acres of active mining and cement plant operations within Rapid City limits. The petitioner on all four requests was listed as the City of Rapid City Community Development Department — acting on behalf of GCC…
-
Permitted but Unzoned: How Rapid City’s 25- Year Zoning Gap for GCC Dacotah Survived a $105 Million Expansion
The 2016 Groundbreaking On the morning of March 18, 2016, Governor Dennis Daugaard stood at 501 North Saint Onge Street in Rapid City and broke ground on a $90 million expansion of the GCC Dacotah cement plant. Mayor Steve Allender was there. The Associated Press covered it. An international cement industry trade publication covered it.…
-
The Elephant in the Cement Truck – GCC Dacotah and Rapid City’s Zoning Dance
The 25-Year Blind Spot: How a 563-Acre Mining Operation Escaped Rapid City’s Oversight How Rapid City Homeowners Unwittingly Subsidized a Global Cement Giant for 25 Years Rapid City Proactively Moves to Define It’s Cement Plant Future