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Growth in Rapid City comes amid tight housing supply

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Rapid City’s growth has been, put simply, rapid over the last decade.

The most recent population estimate puts that total well over 80,000 in the city proper – but with growth comes challenge.

The most recent estimates from city hall puts Rapid City at 82,400 people, an increase of 7,700 since the most recent census in 2020.

City long-range planner Kelly Brennan said the growth isn’t necessarily unheard of, but still significant.

“From 2010 to 2020 we were seeing about a 1.4 (percent) increase every year on average – that’s not the same every year," Brennan said. "Now this year, we’re seeing a 2.24, and last year we were over a 3 percent increase. So, we’re seeing a higher level of increase in population since 2020.”

Brennan said city officials are looking to grow “the right way.”

“Keeping our community safe, protected, out quality of life high – etcetera," Brennan said. "We’re starting to really look at ways to incentivize infill development, making it potentially easier to meet some zoning restrictions that make it harder for that infill development to happen.”

Brennan said details will advance with the looming completion of the latest city comprehensive plan.

However, there are still speedbumps to growth. Namely an old foe for the city – housing.

“We see the need for affordable housing being an issue – obviously housing costs have risen quite a bit in the last three, four years," Brennan said. "Some of the aftereffects of that is when you don’t have housing for your workforce – especially in a tourism-based economy – you push them to the outskirts of town or into the communities outside of Rapid City and then they don’t have transportation. So, it’s kind of a domino effect with these issues.”

With the increase in population, Rapid City built 809 single and multi-family units from June 2022 to May 2023.

C.J. Keene is a Rapid City-based journalist covering the legal system, education, and culture