Box Elder passes housing study population growth projection two years early

Box Elder, S.D. (KEVN) - In 2022, Box Elder and Community Partners Inc. finished conducting a housing study that gave the city a map to tackle housing in the Box Elder area as it continues to develop.

Two years later, from the intersection of S I-90 Service Rd. and N Elk Vale Rd. to the Union apartment complex that is almost finished within viewing distance of Box Elder City Hall, the city is growing and growing faster than expected.

“We’re over 13,000 residents that live in the City of Box Elder and we haven’t even seen the big spike that is projected to come from the increase in airmen that come in with the B-21,” explained City of Box Elder public information officer Derek Wingfield.

The 2022 housing study in the City of Box Elder projected that by 2026, the city would see a population of 13,000. Now fast forward two years to 2022; in 2024, the city will have reached that projection of 13,000 two years early.

“This does not bring in to count the population that lives and is housed on the air force base; this is just the city’s population, and yet the one thing that it does show is that we’re two years ahead of that conservative ‘guesstimate’,” said Wingfield.

The city is now looking to capitalize on these numbers by not overthinking what to do next, and with the city acknowledging that the current growth is natural, its goal is now fairly straightforward.

“The city’s goal is just to maintain the course that it’s on. Maintaining the ability to handle this growth, we know it’s coming; we are aware it’s coming; our systems are healthy; we want to strengthen them; we want to make sure that they can handle this growth,” explained Wingfield. “It helps some of the decisions with our capital improvements. Some of the big things that the city is undertaking right now with our capital improvements are our water and wastewater systems.”

The importance of the city fortifying not only those systems that Wingfield mentioned but others throughout the city is necessary if the city continues to grow at the current rate.

As of Feb., the City of Box Elder has around 275 housing projects in the works, with the city expecting that number to go up during the summer.

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