Rapid City is uniquely positioned as a growing West River population center. With two major developments on the horizon though, additional infrastructure and housing must come with the growth.
The community was already expecting thousands of airmen to move to the area with the B-21 bomber coming to the Ellsworth Airforce Base in neighboring Box Elder. Now, Sanford Health has announced a half-billion-dollar facility for Rapid City, which will further compound challenges associated with growth.
Vicki Fisher is the Rapid City community development director. She said available stock has moved Rapid City out of the shortage it saw after COVID-19, but the city is never out of the housing woods.
“We are now at a healthy vacancy rate, so we anticipate we will continue to grow at a healthy rate," Fisher said. "There’s a lot of great language, and goals, and policies that have been established to clear the way for those types of projects with less red tape. To encourage mixed-use development.”
While housing stock has opened in the community, gaps still exist at all income levels.
“With the announcement of Sanford and the number of professionals that will be coming to the community, we anticipate that we will see some projects that do lean into that high-end home development, but even with those positions there’s support staff," Fisher said. "We need to make sure there’s housing for them too.”
Fisher says one way to ease pressure on lower-income or first-time homebuyers is shifting the current housing stock. Namely creating more middle-income housing for current homeowners to buy into, thus opening their previous homes to new owners.
Growth in the Black Hills generally isn’t slowing down though. With Rapid City alone pushing 100,000 people in city limits by the 2030 census, Fisher says the community will need to be ready.
“The city also has future utility plans, a major street plan, and drainage plans for every area within the city," Fisher said. "The comprehensive plan really landed on this topic. How do we stay ahead of this and how to ensure we’re being equal to opportunity to everyone?”
Some federal programs also provide loans to first time homebuyers.
