Rapid City SD – Six items on the Rapid City Planning Commission’s July 23, 2026, consent calendar ask the city to reclassify a combined stretch of commercial, industrial, and residential land — most of it clustered along Cement Plant Road, Krebs Drive, and the Commerce Road corridor — down to General Agricultural District.
On paper, the applications appear to come from three separate companies, filed through a common engineering agent. A review of South Dakota Secretary of State business filings shows all three owner entities route back to one man: James V. Bailey, and one address: 1730 Samco Road, Rapid City.
This isn’t a new arrangement. Bailey has controlled at least one of these entities, Sweet Creek, LLC, continuously since its 2006 formation — twenty years as registered agent, organizer, and manager, through six changes of annual report and one change of registered office. The rest of the network appears to be the same operator working under different corporate names.
The Consent Calendar: A Sweep of Rezonings
All six requests were filed by Renner Associates, LLC, acting as the agent, and all sit on the same July 23 Planning Commission consent calendar:
Item 7 (Case No. 26RZ025)
Filer / Owner: Sweet Creek LLC
Requested Change: Light Industrial to General Ag
Location: Northeast of Cement Plant Rd and Deadwood Ave
Item 8 (Case No. 26RZ026)
Filer / Owner: Bailey Associates, Inc.
Requested Change: Business Park to General Ag
Location: East of Commerce Rd terminus
Item 9 (Case No. 26RZ027)
Filer / Owner: Bailey Associates, Inc.
Requested Change: Light Industrial to General AgLocation: East of Commerce Rd terminus
Item 10 (Case No. 26RZ028)
Filer / Owner: Eternal Black Hills Memory LLC
Requested Change: Medium Density Residential to General Ag
Location: Southwest of Harmony Heights Ln
Item 14 (Case No. 26RZ023)
Filer / Owner: Sweet Creek LLC
Requested Change: General Commercial to General Ag
Location: 136 Krebs Drive
Item 15 (Case No. 26RZ024)
Filer / Owner: Sweet Creek LLC
Requested Change: Low Density Residential-1 to General Ag
Location: 500 Krebs Drive
A seventh, related item on the same agenda — No. 26VA018 (Shade Tree Subdivision) — is a variance request, also filed by Renner Associates for Sweet Creek LLC, to shrink the required setbacks on an existing storage building at the same 136 Krebs Drive parcel (front yard from 35′ to 32.3′, north side yard from 35′ to 9.7′). Staff recommends approval.
In other words: the same parcel being down zoned to agricultural use already has a structure on it whose footprint needs a variance to legally exist — a detail worth noting for anyone inclined to read “General Agricultural” as meaning strictly empty land.
The Corporate Web: Tracing the LLC’s
Sweet Creek, LLC
Business ID DL011062. Articles of Organization filed with the SD Secretary of State on April 6, 2006, through Wilson Olson & Nash, P.C. James V. Bailey is listed as the initial registered agent, organizer, and manager from formation.
Every annual report from 2007 through 2026 — twenty consecutive filings — lists Bailey as registered agent. The registered address moved once, from 101 St. Joseph Street to 1730 Samco Road, via a Statement of Change filed July 13, 2012, and has stayed there since. The most recent annual report, filed January 4, 2026, and received by the state February 9, 2026, still lists Bailey at that address
Bailey Associates, Inc
Filed alongside Sweet Creek in the same rezoning slate, also via Renner Associates. SD Secretary of State records (Business ID DB035132) show the corporation was formed on December 21, 1994.
James V. Bailey is named, by name, as President and registered agent continuously from that 1994 incorporation through every annual report on file, including the 2026 filing — twenty-plus years of unbroken control. The registered office moved to 1730 Samco Road via a Statement of Change filed December 3, 2012 — the same filing date and address as Sweet Creek LLC’s own 2012 move.
Publicly, Bailey Associates has a documented history in Rapid City: in 2017, the Rapid City Journal and AP wire reported that Bailey Associates was constructing a private sculpture park — a series of roughly 20-foot granite structures intended to carry dedication plaques — on an 84-acre ridge near Hanson-Larsen Memorial Park (M Hill), with James Bailey identified by name as the person behind the project.
Eternal Black Hills Memory, LLC
Also filed by Renner Associates in this batch. SD Secretary of State filings (Business ID DL045650) list James V. Bailey by name as the registered agent, at the same 1730 Samco Road address.
The entity is also listed as an active member of Elevate Rapid City, the public-private economic development partnership. Its name — evoking memory and legacy in the Black Hills — closely parallels the 2017 Bailey Associates memorial/dedication-plaque sculpture park project described above.
Renner Associates, LLC
The engineering/agent firm listed on every one of the six rezoning requests, plus the Shade Tree variance. Acts as the filing intermediary for the entire slate. Renner has not itself been shown to trace back to Bailey — its role here is as filing agent.
The Map: Proximity and Power Lines
The parcels cluster along a corridor also crossed by the 2019 Black Hills Energy transmission line expansion project — a filing with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission shows BHE structures and alignment running through the same Cement Plant Road / Krebs Drive / Chicago Street area, overlaid on Pennington County parcel lines.
Whether this is coincidental or relevant to the downzoning is an open question rather than a settled conclusion — the map shows proximity, not intent.
The “Holding Cell”: The Strategy Behind General AG
During the June 25, 2026, Rapid City Planning Commission meeting, the practical application of General Agricultural zoning was explicitly discussed.
At the 1:24:45 mark, Commissioner Kelly Arguello asked for clarification on the zoning’s limitations: “General Ag — I guess my question, what is the ultimate threshold of end use that general ag, I’m assuming is grazing land, it could be maybe some light farming. Does a general ag designation allow like an industrial scale operation like a hog farm or a slaughter house or processing plant, is there a threshold where general Ag does not allow, you know there’s residential there, commercial, can you just walk through the general Ag as it applies to this.”
Vicki Fisher, the city’s Community Development Director, responded to the inquiry, detailing how the city typically views the designation:
1:25:17 — Vicki Fisher: “Mr. Chair, so there are some larger acre parcels in Rapid City that are zoned general Ag used for grazing, haying, that type of thing. For the most part though as we use general Ag and it says so in the zoning designation itself…”
1:25:33 — Vicki Fisher: “It serves as a holding cell. The property owner isn’t ready to develop it yet, they’ve got a minimum of 40 acres, they zone it general Ag, and it helps with the taxation.”
The Mechanics of Downsizing: Tax Relief and Strategic Holding
While rezoning from residential or industrial down to agricultural may seem counterintuitive in a growing city, the move carries distinct operational advantages under municipal zoning code and county assessment structures:
Lowering Carrying Costs: Property assessments for General Agricultural land are calculated significantly lower than commercial, industrial, or multi-family residential parcels.
Reclassifying active or idle holdings down to General Ag effectively freezes high property tax rates, allowing a landowner to minimize holding costs indefinitely on inactive acreage.
Preserving Future Optionality: Downzoning does not permanently lock land into agricultural use. By consolidating disparate zoning designations across neighboring parcels into a single, uniform “holding cell,” an operator maintains full flexibility to petition the city for a unified, large-scale rezone or master plan when market conditions or buyer interest align.
Sourcing
City of Rapid City Planning Commission: Consent Calendar Agenda Items 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, and 26VA018 (July 23, 2026).
City of Rapid City Planning Commission: Official Meeting Broadcast and Public Record (June 25, 2026).
South Dakota Secretary of State Corporate Records: Business Entity Filings for Sweet Creek, LLC (DL011062); Bailey Associates, Inc. (DB035132); and Eternal Black Hills Memory, LLC (DL045650).
South Dakota Public Utilities Commission: Black Hills Energy transmission line expansion filings (2019).
Archival Reporting: Rapid City Journal and Associated Press reporting regarding the Hanson-Larsen Memorial Park sculpture project (2017).
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