Yorkton is growing, and city manager David Putz recently took the opportunity to talk about what's happening in the city and where it is going to go at a recent Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
One thing that is clear he says is that the city is growing faster in 2012 than even one year earlier. Putz notes that in 2011 there were 26 housing starts valued at $8,991,000, while at the end of August 2012 there were 34 housing starts with a value of $9,634,000. There were seven starts in multi-family residential in 2011, valued at $8,973,000.
This year, 11 starts, with a value of $6,842,000. Commercial development in 2011 saw 34 starts of a value of $11,319,000, and at the end of August 2012 saw 46 starts $43,151,000.
On an industrial basis, there was one development in 2011 with a value of $2,600,000, while in 2012 there was one development worth $362,000.
With annexation, Putz says that the city now has land in all categories available to sale and ready to develop. Currently there is development on the north side of the city, but some of plans in the future involve developing towards the south.
Putz says that one of the main challenges in developing for the south is determining how the sewer lines need to be designed, especially in terms of how it will handle surrounding development. He also says that the current line which follows Highway 9 is currently reaching capacity, so a new line will have to be established, and they will have to decide how to route it and whether it will be a purely gravity feed system or require frequent lift stations.
Putz says that the gravity feed is preferred, but it's going to take work to decide on the size and optimum depth for the line.
"We don't want to go back in four or five years and put in a second line, because putting in a line is a lot more expensive than putting in a pipe that is the proper size," he adds.
With a large amount of development happening, the city's challenge is to ensure they can continue to service that growth effectively.
