Rapid City, SD – The Zoning Board of Adjustment meets at 7 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the City Council Meeting Room, 300 Sixth St. The Planning Commission follows immediately after.
ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
26VA028 – Block 8 LLC, 440 Mount Rushmore Road
This item was continued from Oct. 8
Billi Raker of Block 8 LLC first asked for 1,400 square feet of wall signs and 850 square feet of electronic message centers on the seven-story building. Code allows 420 and 60.
The revised request is 837 square feet of wall signs, 99% over the limit, and 172.75 square feet of electronic signs, 188% over.
What Changed- The new plan has five 81-square-foot lit wall signs between the floors on the south face and one 432-square-foot sign at the top of the north face. That top sign could carry the building’s name or a single tenant’s.
The plan also adds a 126.75-square-foot electronic screen on the east side, counted together with the existing 46-square-foot screen in the plaza. That plaza screen was recently converted to an electronic display under a city sign permit.
Background: On Oct. 8, staff recommended denial, finding no special circumstances and saying the request wasn’t the minimum adjustment needed.
With three board members absent, Community Development Director Vicki Fisher offered the applicant a continuance because of the board’s voting requirements.
Staff now makes no recommendation either way. The earlier denial findings still stand, but staff adds that the revised request is “reasonably aligned” with past variances for Turnac Tower and Block 5, both 10-story buildings.
Block 8 Tower Sign Request Continued to Oct 22 After Staff Urged Denial
26VA030 – AMM Rapid City LLC, 1902 N. LaCrosse St.
The pole once pointed I-90 drivers to a Holiday Inn. The land under it now belongs to Chick-fil-A Inc., and a fast-food restaurant is under construction there.
AMM Rapid City LLC wants to keep the existing 65-foot, 320-square-foot sign as a shared sign for a new five-business development that includes three fast-food restaurants and a tire store. Shared signs are normally capped at 15 feet and 200 square feet. Staff recommends approval.
Background –The pole went up in 1985. Variances in 1996 and 1997 kept it at 65 feet, then raised it to 70.
Staff notes that as a single-business sign it could reach 445 square feet without a variance.
Staff’s own denial findings say the request isn’t the minimum adjustment necessary, which is the same standard staff cited against Block 8 on Oct. 8.
PLANNING COMMISSION
Consent calendar: These items pass together in one vote unless a commissioner, staff member or audience member asks to pull one for separate discussion.
26PL087 – Deadwood Storage Subdivision (consent)
FMG Engineering, for Heavy Constructors Inc., is asking to split about 29.7 acres at 4321 Deadwood Ave. N. into three light industrial lots of 6.9 to 12.1 acres, served by a new cul-de-sac.
Staff recommends approval with 15 stipulations. One of them requires either building the planned collector street through the property or winning approval of item 7.
Infrastructure: The lots would rely on private wells and septic systems and would have no fire hydrants, so sprinklers would be required by covenant.
Public Works has administratively waived new pavement, curb, gutter and streetlight conduit on Deadwood Avenue North.
FMG’s report says the developer also asked to waive water, sewer and streetlight utilities in the cul-de-sac, and expects to seek City Council variances from sidewalk requirements.
26PD021 – Dakota Heartland Inc., southeast of Homestead St. and Timmons Blvd. (consent)
This would revoke a 2002 Planned Development designation on 1.64 undeveloped acres zoned General Commercial. Staff recommends approval. The Commission’s vote is final unless someone files a written appeal within seven days.
Explainer: A Planned Development designation lets the city review a site’s specifics before it’s built.
This one covered appearance along the Elk Vale Road corridor, traffic and access, and noise and lighting.
Revoking it leaves only the standard code. Land to the east and south is zoned Public and planned for the city’s Fire Station 9, police substation and park, now under construction. The memo doesn’t say what Dakota Heartland plans to build.
26UR018 – Live It Up Event Center, 937 E. North St., Suite 401 (consent)
This would allow beer and wine at an event venue in Dakota Market Square. Staff recommends approval with stipulations. It is final unless appealed within seven days.
Background- The suite previously held on-sale liquor permits for an entertainment center in 2020 and a restaurant in 2025. Hours would depend on each event, and the site is within 500 feet of a place of worship. The venue would still need a liquor license from City Council.
Regular Agenda
26RZ035 – Jim Bickett / J Bickett Rentals LLC, 2918 Garden Lane
This would rezone Tract B of the Bickett Subdivision, about a third of an acre, from Low Density Residential District 1 to Mobile Home Residential District so a new mobile home can be placed there. Staff recommends approval.
Background – City Council approved splitting the property into three tracts in June; one already holds a mobile home.
Mobile Home Residential allows the same uses as Low Density Residential 1, plus mobile homes. The gravel driveway must be paved for its first 50 feet when a building permit is issued.
The Planning Commission denied an exception to that rule on this property in 2017. In September, J Bickett Rentals sought a sidewalk waiver on Garden Lane through public works.
On Oct. 8, the Commission approved a similar rezone to Mobile Home Residential at 859 Valley Drive. In both reports, staff cites citywide housing demand and says the city plans to review its zoning code to allow more housing types by right.
Rapid City’s September 15th Public Works Agenda Cheat Sheet
26RZ036 – Old Bailey LLC, 925 Elk Vale Road
This would rezone five acres from General Commercial to Light Industrial for a Sturdevant’s Auto Parts warehouse addition. The land was added to the existing lot through a 2026 lot-line adjustment. Staff recommends approval.
26CA002 – Deadwood Storage Subdivision / Major Street Plan
The Major Street Plan is the city’s long-range map of where future major roads go.
FMG Engineering, for Heavy Constructors Inc., applied in September to drop a planned north-south collector street from it.
After staff comments, FMG revised the request on Oct. 13. The new version removes the street south of Calamity Road and reconnects the rest to Calamity Road’s western end. The agenda still describes the original request. Staff recommends approval, saying the street’s location wasn’t “conducive to maximizing the area available for development.”
Background- FMG’s plat report says Heavy Constructors representatives met with city staff in August.
FMG understood staff to be “agreeable” to eliminating the street before the application was filed.
The amendment’s legal description also covers neighboring land owned by Buren Properties, where the same collector runs through the planned second phase of its Deadwood Avenue Commercial Subdivision.
In June, the city denied Buren’s request to skip dedicating land for and building that collector.
Buren appealed, then withdrew the appeal in July When the Planning Commission reviewed Buren’s plat on July 23, staff wrote that the collector would have to be built at Phase 2 “or a Comprehensive Plan Amendment must be approved” to move it.
FMG’s revision letter for this amendment was sent on behalf of “the property owners” and copies both Heavy Constructors and Buren Properties.
The Exception That Has An Exception: The Public Works Agenda Anomaly
Buren Properties Appeal Hits a Wall: Public Works Committee Sends It Back For Two More Weeks
Discussion items: Election of officers.
General public comment closes the meeting.
Where It Goes Next
- Final Thursday: both ZBOA sign variances (26VA028, 26VA030). The Planned Development revocation (26PD021) and the event venue liquor permit (26UR018) are also decided Thursday but can be appealed to City Council within seven days.
- On to City Council: the Bickett and Old Bailey rezones (26RZ035, 26RZ036), the Deadwood Storage plat (26PL087) and the street plan amendment (26CA002). Expected as early as Nov. 2.
- Still needed later: the event venue’s liquor license from City Council.
Sourcing
City of Rapid City Oct. 22, 2026 ZBOA and Planning Commission agendas; project reports and attachments for 26VA028, 26VA030, 26PL087, 26PD021, 26UR018, 26RZ035, 26RZ036 and 26CA002; Oct. 8, 2026 ZBOA and Planning Commission minutes and the 26RZ032 project report; FMG Engineering’s preliminary subdivision report (Sept. 25, 2026) and revision letter (Oct. 13, 2026); Public Works items PW063026-18 (26EX042 denial and appeal, June 30, 2026) and the July 14, 2026 withdrawal; 26PL028 project report and plat (July 23, 2026); City of Rapid City Fire Station 9 and Park Improvements bid authorization (PW042826-08).
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