Is the $70,000 fence really about public safety?

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The city of Sioux Falls is looking at building a $70,000 dollar fence around an empty lot near the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House.

Business owners and people who work in the neighborhood – in the central part of the city – have mixed feelings. Some are also questioning the intentions behind the plan.

The open lot is a place where homeless people are known to gather. It’s also known for problems. In 2024, police and first responders were called here thousands of times.

Shannon Ward’s business is just a block away.

“I’m up this street and I do deal, daily, with situations, and I deal with them very well. However, if it was a larger amount of people, it would get a little bit more frustrating for me to have to handle,” Good NAtured owner, Shannon Ward said.

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Clinton Brown works with nonprofits in the area.

“I think that those who are choosing not to live at Bishop Dudley and not to participate in UGM and the banquet, there are individuals I know because I worked down on the streets for three years now who just are sort of living off the grid in that space. They will go somewhere else and they will be a new problem in that new location,” Executive Director BAM Institute, Clinton Brown said.

Both Ward and Brown also question the timing of the fence, since it’s located just 2 blocks away from where the Riverline District is set to be built. The plans include a new convention center.

“The elephant in the room is the Riverline District, and everybody in this neighborhood knows it. And it just would be a lot nicer if the city would just say what’s going on and tell us. And then that way we can work as a community to work with that situation rather than trying to constantly work against whatever is happening,” Ward said.

The land is owned by a division of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Brown heard Chancellor Thad Pals say this.

“The city, I believe we’ll use this area as well for staging for whatever it might be, maybe for some construction going on in that area for I don’t know what it might be used for, but the city will get use out of it,” Chancellor Thad Pals said.

“Up until that meeting, I thought that this really was just about public safety. And I think at the end of it, I walked away. I said, this is really the city’s needing a place to stage trucks,” Brown said.

Brown still believes a fence will help with public safety.

“I think for the police department, it probably accomplishes exactly what the police chief said it was going to accomplish because he has a goal of providing public safety, especially on private property. And the fence will aid in that,” Brown said.

However, as for Ward and her business, she is not sold on the fence.

“A fence is not, absolutely not, going to fix it,” Ward said.

If people are worried about safety in that neighborhood, Ward invites them to visit during the day to see if they are comfortable.