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Community profile: Elko and New Market

Note: This is the second in a monthly series of community profiles, intended to highlight issues faced by local governments as they begin the process of updating their comprehensive plans.

Rapid growth and cities' merger are top issues

If you can hear the roar of stock car racing, it must be Saturday night in Elko. The tiny but fast-growing southeastern Scott County community is home to the Elko Speedway, a high-banked, 3/8-mile paved oval track. It is one of only 60 short tracks in the U.S. to be sanctioned by NASCAR.

Next door, New Market – founded by German and Prussian immigrants in the mid-1800s – is known for its historic and thriving Catholic church, St. Nicolaus, located along Main Street. Like Elko, New Market is growing rapidly.

For just seven more months, Elko and New Market will be the separate cities they have been since their respective incorporations in 1949 and 1865. On January 1, 2007 – by vote of the cities’ residents – a new, combined city called Elko New Market will become official.

Cities have provided services jointly

The merger is a natural evolution for two adjacent communities that for many years have provided some services – like police, fire and wastewater treatment – jointly. In 2004 the cities completed a joint comprehensive plan under the leadership of Scott County. The plan was developed in consultation with surrounding townships, and includes New Market Township.

“

Extending a sewer interceptor to Elko and New Market makes a tremendous amount of economic sense for the communities and for the region. It's a long-term solution for the growth that's inevitable for communities so close to a corridor like I-35.

”

- Jules Smith
Metropolitan Council member representing District 4

Planning is critical for these two cities, whose tiny populations are growing fast. Between 2000 and 2004, Elko’s population doubled from 472 to an estimated 970. Next door, New Market’s population quadrupled in the same period from 332 to 1,341. The growth is expected to accelerate in the coming years. The Metropolitan Council forecasts that the merged cities will have a population of 5,700 in 2010 and 20,800 in 2030.

In order to prevent more scattered development in the rural area, the Council’s 2030 Regional Development Framework supports orderly growth of rural cities that want to grow. In the case of Elko and New Market, the Council supported an interim expansion of the cities’ joint wastewater treatment plant, while simultaneously planning to extend a regional sewer interceptor to the communities. By 2010, the community’s wastewater will flow to the Empire Wastewater Treatment Plant in Eureka Township.

At the same time, Scott County is undertaking a major upgrade of County Highway 2, which connects Elko and New Market to Interstate 35. The joint comprehensive plan lays out the local road investments that will be necessary to support forecasted growth in the area.

Maintaining small-town character

“We want to make sure we maintain the small-town environment of the community as we grow,” said Kent Hartzler, Elko mayor. Characteristics such as a sense of safety, knowing your neighbors and having access to public officials are valued by both longtime and newer residents, he said.

For some people who’ve lived in the area all their lives, watching the community change so quickly is a difficult adjustment. “When I go to church there are so many people I don’t know,” said Bernice Devine, who has lived in the township for 74 years. “We used to know all the neighbors.”

One of the more challenging issues the merging cities face is affordable housing, Hartzler said. “The economics of it is really tough when land values just keep going up,” he said. “That’s an issue we have to tackle.”

Because of the joint comprehensive plan, Terry does not anticipate major tension with the township as the new city Elko New Market annexes land to accommodate growth. “The comprehensive plan, which the township was involved in developing, has a clear plan for the growth of the city,” Terry said. “We will not annex any property until it is ready to start developing. The ongoing communication between the city and the township greatly reduces the potential for conflict.”

Public is involved in the local planning process.

-- published June 2006 --