Tag: City council
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What is Burning Next to Rapid City’s Neighborhoods? Inside the GCC 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…
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The 25 Year Precedent Set by GCC Dacotah- EDITORIAL CARTOON
For Immediate ReleaseRapid City, SD –From the Desk of the Press Secretary, Office of Waterfowl Affairs, Memorial Park Division “The Office of Waterfowl Affairs notes the historical precedent set by the 25-year oversight of the aforementioned 563-acre mining operation. We applaud the city’s long-standing tradition of looking the other way when it comes to expansion…
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RETRO-ZONED: Rapid City is Changing the Map to Match the Ground
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…
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Permitted but Unzoned: How Rapid City’s 25- Year Zoning Gap 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.…
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The 25-Year Blind Spot: How a 563-Acre Mining Operation Escaped Rapid City’s Oversight
At 7:10 on Thursday morning, most Rapid City residents were still asleep. The ones who showed up to the Planning Commission meeting came because the ground beneath their neighborhood had been shaking before dawn. What they learned—and what the city itself had only recently discovered—was that a foreign-owned cement company had been extracting minerals from…
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Who Decides Rapid City? A Ward-by-Ward Look at Primary Turnout
On June 2, Rapid City held elections in all five wards to determine who would represent residents on the Common Council — the body that sets zoning policy, approves franchise agreements, and controls the city budget. Fewer than one in four registered voters participated. Citywide, council race turnout was 22.8% of registered voters. Statewide primary…
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Rapid City Council Races Decided; Ward 4 Results Complicated by Withdrawn Candidate
Unofficial results from the South Dakota Secretary of State, June 2, 2026 Rapid City voters settled all five ward alderman races Tuesday in a primary that saw turnout vary widely across the city, with Ward 2 recording the lowest total of any ward at 1,427 votes — less than half the 3,313 cast in Ward…
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How A Spearfish Political Power Struggle Helped Shape Rapid City Ordinance 6717
RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Rapid City’s Legal and Finance Committee advanced Ordinance 6717 Wednesday, the item was described simply as bringing the city’s municipal code into alignment with state law. What that alignment represents is a legal framework — rooted in an 1890 statute — that concentrates authority over appointed city officers firmly in…
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Ward 2 Challenger – Christopher Vanderhoof – Left Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form Blank, Records Prove
RAPID CITY, S.D. — A challenger for Rapid City’s Ward 2 city council seat left the financial disclosure section of a required conflict of interest form entirely blank when he filed his candidacy in March, records obtained by the Rapid City Sentinel show. Signed Blank form Under penalty of Perjury Christopher Vanderhoof, who faces incumbent…
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Rapid City Proactively Moves to Define Its Cement Plant Future
A century ago, South Dakota stepped in where private industry wouldn’t. With vast deposits of the raw materials needed for cement production sitting in the Black Hills and no private developer willing to build, Gov. Peter Norbeck championed a state-owned plant. Voters amended the state constitution to make it possible, and Dacotah Cement was born.…