Minnehaha County, SD Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Ordinance MC #47-15, the Highway Utility Crossing Ordinance, controls any encroachment into a county highway right-of-way by a "utility facility," a term the ordinance defines broadly to cover electric power, communications, cable television, water, gas, oil, slurry, petroleum products, steam, sanitary sewers, wireless towers, and public or private drainage or irrigation lines. Section 3(a) requires the utility owner to submit an application to the County Highway Superintendent before any installation, improvement, maintenance, relocation, or expansion within a right-of-way under county jurisdiction, using a form the Superintendent promulgates under Section 2.

The Superintendent may grant a permit outright, grant it with modifications or conditions, or deny it, based on the ordinance and criteria compiled in a policy guidebook filed with the County Auditor and Highway Department (Section 2(c)). Any work must follow the permit's conditions exactly, and the Superintendent may revoke a permit on a written finding that permit conditions or the underlying criteria have been violated (Section 3(d)). Section 4 lets the Superintendent set and publish a permit fee in the criteria guidebook; no application can be approved until that fee is paid, though the fee is waived entirely for "public government applicants," defined in Section 1(c) as the United States government, the State of South Dakota, and municipalities, counties, and townships.

Section 5 allows the Superintendent to require a performance bond as a condition of the permit if not already required by other law. An applicant or permit holder who disagrees with a grant-with-conditions, denial, or revocation decision has five working days from the Superintendent's decision to file a written appeal with the County Auditor, the Highway Superintendent, and the County Commission Office; the Commission then hears the appeal at a regular meeting and reviews the Superintendent's decision for abuse of discretion, voting to uphold, uphold with modification, or reverse it.