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12-unit w/ elevator
1430 sq ft, soundproof
1/2 mile S. of BHSU
Builder: Rothhouse Home Builders
Architect: Prairie Design Studio (www.prairiedesign.com)
Civil Engineer: NJS Engineering (www.njsengineering.com)
This is a 3-story (ground level is 24 garages) building of 12 units, each with 1430 sq ft, and was the first residential structure in Spearfish with an elevator and a fire sprinkler system. Soundproofing is ensured by floors with a layer of gypcrete and walls between units that are double ("condo walls"). Particular attention was paid to energy efficiency.

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West Elementary School has grades per-Kindergarden through 2nd grade. All Spearfish public schools have been aided since 2001 by The Spearfish Foundation for Public Education: http://spearfishschools.org/

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Spearfish Public Library

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E.Y. Berry Library
University buildings (~750,000 sq ft) are heated by hot water or steam distributed via an underground network of insulated pipes. Currently heat is generated by burning natural gas, but BHSU is considering using waste wood from the vast Black Hills Forest as fuel both to become carbon-neutral and to cut costs very substantially. BHSU's Sustainability Initiatives: http://www.bhsu.edu/StudentLife/Living/GoGreen/Sustainability/tabid/5983/Default.aspx

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Best Health Food Grocery
Mentioned in Rapid City Journal article of Nov. 27, 2007: "Spearfish a cultural, commercial hot spot"

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All Spearfish public schools have been aided since 2001 by The Spearfish Foundation for Public Education: http://spearfishschools.org/

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All Spearfish public schools have been aided since 2001 by The Spearfish Foundation for Public Education: http://spearfishschools.org/

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Occupying over 100 acres between W. Oliver Ave and Hillsview Dr, the Homestake Gold Mine sawmill produced beams for its Lead, SD mine which was one of the largest in the western hemisphere. The sawmill was later sold to Pope & Talbot and was purchased in 2008 by the Neiman family. See CEO Jim Neiman's paper- with Bill Carlson- on combined heat and power from sawmill waste (woody biomass): http://smallwoodnews.com/Forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=804&highlight=neiman
and Bill Carlson's paper on "Biomass Combined Heat & Power (CHP)": http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/community-biomass-workshop/BC_CHP.pdf

November 7, 2008 radio interview of Jim D. Neiman: http://www.livewithjay.com/?p=262

A more ambitious proposal is given at: http://base.google.com/base/a/2767210/D11358670063228754609

Jim D. Neiman's June 3, 2009 testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee On Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, And Forestry: http://agriculture.house.gov/testimony/111/h060309/Neiman.pdf

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Spearfish Regional Hospital

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Steve Williams grew up in Spearfish and graduated with a degree in Architecture from Montana State University in Bozeman. After a number of years of working for a Colorado Springs firm designing medical buildings from coast to coast, he returned and now heads a dozen-person firm. The Black Hills Community Economic Development website has an article about Steve and his firm entitled "Williams and Associates Architecture—Making A Mark In The Hills": http://www.bhced.org/spotlight.htm

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Civil Engineers

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Encyclopedia entry.

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Life in small college towns.

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Tables from City Town Info site.

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from Epodunk website.

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Neighborhood walkability
City lot ("Lot 2") with 268' frontage* along W. Hill St. at intersection with University Avenue, just east of the Valley Vista Condominium building (0.5 miles south of BHSU). To locate on Google Maps, enter 805 W. Hill Street, Spearfish, SD 57783.

Excellent Development Property, Zoned R-1. Suggest a rezone to R-3 or "Use Permitted Upon Review" (PUD) for another condominium building or apartment building. Alternatively, a split into multiple single-family home lots as in photo #4 (a schematic site plan for 6 SFH) would work well. The next-door neighbor--Valley Vista Condominium building--was built in 1994 by Rothhouse Home Builders from a design by the architects at Prairie Design Studio(http://www.prairiedesign.com). It is a 3-story (ground level is 24 garages) building of 12 units, each with 1430 sq ft, and was the first residential structure in Spearfish with an elevator and a fire sprinkler system. Soundproofing is ensured by floors with a layer of gypcrete and walls between units that are double ("condo walls"). Particular attention was paid to energy efficiency.

Note: Black Hills State University (BHSU) has its own zip code = 57799. Using this rather than Spearfish's zip code (57783) facilitates searching for property close to the University.

The "WalkScore" website gave Lot 2 a rating of 63 out of 100 (quite convenient to walk to various amenities). See: http://walkscore.com/get-score.php?street=805+W.+Hill+Street%2C+Spearfish%2C+SD+57783&go=Go

*Update: The landscape architect's first iteration of the site plan for the 120-acre tract would require about a 44' ROW along the eastern boundary of Lot 2 for the extension of University Avenue, so the usable Hill Street dimension would be only 224' (buildable lot = 230' x 224' = 1.18 acres).

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Tmax Weather Ctr KRGH

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SD's very favorable tax climate
SD entirely eliminated certain taxes (e.g., inheritance tax forbidden by a 2001 constitutional amendment); estate tax is a "pickup" tax based on federal state tax exemption and is zero as of 2005. See http://www.sdreadytowork.com/DBISD/Startup/step9.asp
also
http://www.alec.org/fileadmin/newPDF/South_Dakota.pdf

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Originally built in 1926 as Spearfish High School and subsequently renovated to serve grades 3-5. As of the Fall of 2008, the school board has decided to build a replacement school for grades 3-5 on another site to be selected soon.
All Spearfish public schools have been aided since 2001 by The Spearfish Foundation for Public Education: http://spearfishschools.org/

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60' wide Utility Right-of-Way(ROW) running from Homestake Gold Mine's 4 MW hydroelectric plant#1 finished in 1912 to its sawmill. The plant, which is near Spearfish City Park where the two branches of Spearfish Creek join, generated electricity for the Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, SD and for its Spearfish sawmill. Link: http://www.city.spearfish.sd.us/publicworks/hydroplant.htm
The ROW has above-ground electric distribution wires and poles and is also suitable for underground insulated hot water pipes for a district heating and cooling system powered by a waste wood combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the sawmill grounds. CHP is also known as cogeneration.

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Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for District Heating/Cooling of Spearfish, South Dakota

A combined heat and power, or cogeneration plant for district heating/cooling (Reference 1) located on or next to the Spearfish Forest Products sawmill site could economically distribute hot water (typically at ~200 deg F) via insulated underground pipes to nearby large users of heat. For example, one pipeline path following a more or less straight line could serve (ordered by increasing distance) the drying operations of the sawmill, Black Hills State University (BHSU), which is adjacent to the sawmill, West Elementary School, the Middle School and tied for farthest at about 1 mile, the High School, the Hospital and Safeway Grocery. Another pipeline path following a somewhat less direct route for about 1.3 miles along Jackson Blvd, the main artery connecting the university with downtown, could serve the sawmill, BHSU and the downtown area.

Burning the very low cost waste wood both supports a local industry and keeps money otherwise paid to far-away natural gas suppliers within the Black Hills. The Black Hills can sustainably supply a vast amount of wood for this purpose and that, in contrast to natural gas, is carbon neutral. To obtain better economy of scale, it is very helpful to include more buildings than just those of BHSU.

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Named for local cattle rancher David M. Dorsett and very generously funded by his widow Olive in the 1940's, the concept of the first elderly care facility closer than Yankton was a long-time plan of both Dorsetts.

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This $12 million addition to the Spearfish park system was finished in 2008. It is on the site formerly occupied by the old and relatively small Walmart.

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Located just north of the old WalMart site (now occupied by the Recreation and Aquatic Center), this building replaced the downtown Post Office in the 1990s.

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The mission of Dan Diego's is to provide a healthy, fresh, high quality, South Dakota grown tortilla product to a growing market. Our tortillas are made fresh daily in our local factory.

Dan Diego Tortilla factory sells directly to foodservice and wholesale accounts, including Spearfish restaurants and grocery stores--the closest of which is Lueder’s Food Center.

Passersby the large storefront window can see tortillas being made fresh and take a tour of the factory.