Driveway easement through tree park nixed as panel OKs emergency access only

Plans to establish a road easement through a Sioux Falls tree park took a step forward this week.

The Sioux Falls Park and Recreation Board Wednesday signed off on a proposal to create an emergency access path capable of carrying fire trucks and emergency vehicles through the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum on the eastern outskirts of the city.

The easement would be for emergency access to the nearby Arbor's Edge addition, which can't add any new homes with a secondary access point.

More:Arboretum expansion plans hinge on extending road through nature preserve

In exchange for the easement, the owner of the Arbor's Edge addition, Quoin Bank, offered to donate about 6.7 acres of adjacent, tree-covered land to the arboretum.

The land swap has the blessing of the nonprofit board that oversees operations at the arboretum. That panel met last week to discuss and vote on the proposal in a closed-door meeting in which media were excluded from.

Also being considered during that meeting was another proposal that would have allowed the easement to be used a private driveway to a parcel being eyed for a single-family home. 

Arboretum board member Mary Ellen Connelly told the parks board when the city, county and nonprofit entered the three-way partnership to establish the arboretum in 2008, the expectation was that eventually an emergency access easement might be necessary in the future. But there was never an expectation that the tree park would need to accommodate everyday access for other private developments, she said.

"We've never been against the plan for an emergency easement," she said. "We just don't feel like there should be any private easements going through the arboretum."

The 145-acre park, which is a part of the City of Sioux Falls' parks system, sits on land owned by Minnehaha County. County commissioners will have the final say on whether any easements should be granted at an upcoming meeting.