Meade County Commissioners voted to suspend all engineering on a new road proposal that had the potential to alleviate congestion down Lazelle Street during the Rally.
The Meade County Commission voted February 3 to suspend all engineering for a new road from I-90 to Highway 79 along a route that would extend 131st Avenue east of Sturgis. The new thoroughfare could potentially alleviate congestion during the annual Sturgis rally, which brings in excess to a half-million people to the area. The route would have given quicker, easier access to tourism sites like Ft. Meade, Bear Butte, and the major Rally campgrounds like the Buffalo Chip.
According to ‘
Sturgis 131,’ a site lobbying for the byway’s construction, the project “will lead to greater circulation of traffic and access within Meade County, resultant development and an increase in the county’s tax base.” As it stands, Lazelle Street is the only route for trucks to get through Sturgis. And anyone that’s done the biker crawl from stop sign to stop sign down Lazelle knows what a cluster this stretch becomes during the Rally. The new route could also bring in additional property tax revenue for Meade County as the Highway 79/34 junction possesses potential growth for new businesses, like truck stops and restaurants.
‘Sturgis 131’ also stated “People first petitioned Meade County and the State of South Dakota to complete 131st Avenue from Highway 34 to I-90 more than three decades ago. The Commissioners finally voted in September, 2009 to complete the remaining section line highway (less than two miles remain unimproved) and to have the road completed in the spring of 2010.”
These plans took a 180-degree turn Wednesday after Meade County Commissioners voted to suspend all engineering for the road by a 3-to-1 vote. One commissioner owns property where the proposed road would go through and therefore had to abstain from the vote.
Rapid City Journal reporter T.J. Tranchell said that most of the opposition is from residents who own property in areas the new road would impact.
“They are against the road itself. They are against a road that they see as not having a feasible purpose. Most believe the road won’t actually be used as much as the county tells them it will,” Tranchell stated.
Other issues Tranchell mentioned are the fact that the road initially was a federal project. The government backed out of the plan citing ‘a lack of economic feasibility.’ Meade County countered with a proposal whereby it would take over the fiscal responsibility of maintaining another road if the federal government would proceed with the bypass, but the government backed out of that proposal as well.
“The other issue is that if the county builds the road, they don’t have to do the historical surveys of the land that the feds do. If the county proceeds on its own, the road will be forever ineligible for any type of federal funds if the historical studies aren’t completed before the road is built,” continued Tranchell.
On a related note, Sturgis residents also voted Wednesday against a referendum to annex 1,821 acres of land east of Sturgis along S.D. Highway 34. Businesses along the area in question would have been affected by the road’s construction. Properties that would have been annexed include the Full Throttle Saloon, Sturgis Brown High School, Fort Meade, Glencoe CampResort and the city’s wastewater treatment facility. Full Throttle Saloon owner Michael Ballard lobbied hard against the annexation. The referendum would have raised property taxes and questions about extending city services to this area were points of contention for Ballard and others.
“The road and the annexation are kissing cousins. One certainly affects the other, although it is different entities with somewhat similar goals not seeing eye-to-eye and possibly blocking the goals of the other side,” Tranchell surmised.
