Lincoln County officials want a judge to decide if the state has the right to build a prison in the county without public input or local review.
Lincoln County officials want a judge to decide if the state has the right to build a prison in the county without public input or local review.
On Tuesday, county commissioners voted to submit a legal argument in support of the landowners who’ve sued the state Department of Corrections, though the scope of their official support is narrower than the prison opponents’ ultimate aim to force the state to pick another location.
Lincoln County Commissioner Joel Arends.
Those who live near the proposed prison site south of Harrisburg organized as a nonprofit called “Neighbors Opposed to Prison Expansion” on Oct. 13. That was less than two weeks after the state announced the location for the prison, which is meant to house 1,200 male inmates and replace the aging penitentiary in north-central Sioux Falls.
The landowners say they weren’t consulted, that their property values will fall and that the area lacks the infrastructure to manage what will essentially amount to a small town, rapidly erected on cropland encircled by gravel roads and neighbored by little more than other cropland and rural acreages.
Most relevant to the county is the landowner lawsuit’s primary assertion: That the state is not immune to local zoning laws.
“I think they should have to abide by our local zoning requirements,” said Commissioner Michael Poppens.
