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PUP 301
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Evaluating Eric Killeleas Boomtown USA
The sleepy and sparsely populated state of North Dakota is experiencing a rare eventa
boom in population motivated by oil fracking is flooding Williams County and the City of
Williston. With the opportunity of oil comes the responsibility of local towns and cities to meet
the needs and demands of increased populations. This boom is proving to be a challenge for
Willistons city officials and residents alike because the citys infrastructure was not prepared for
a rapid influx of workers and is desperately trying to adapt to the new needs of residents.
Problems outlined in Eric Killeleas article Boomtown USA include meeting housing
demands, improving road quality for frequent heavy-hauls, accounting for current zoning laws
and landscape characteristics, and providing enough funding to pay for these all necessary
changes within Williston. To solve these problems and advance the development of Williston,
principles of urban planning and sustainability will need to be present in the decision making
process and allocation of resources so that this Boomtown USA is not soon bust.
The most obvious and pressing issue facing Williams County, explained in the article, is a
high demand and low supply of housing available to the incoming workers. According to
Killelea, People here say its easier to find work than housing making Williston the most
expensive place to be a renter, with the average cost of a one bedroom apartment [being]
$2,394 a month (2014). A lack of affordable, temporary housing, has led oil workers to turn to
mobile home communities, residential subdivision in rural parts of the city, or man camps
located outside city limits. These man camps lack water and sewage piping and require those
amenities to be regularly hauled in and out of the camps by trucks (Killelea, 2014). Efforts to
temporarily solve the housing problems have included the halting of issuing camp permits and

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the commissioning of dorm-like housing facilities for the many single men working on the oil
rigs to occupy while in Williston (Killelea, 2014). Williston is further encouraging more
permanent residential building by issuing four times the amounts of building permits it accepted
in 2007 (Killelea, 2014). By investing in skilled city planners and managers like principal
planner Donald Kress and code compliance officer Nick Vasuthsawat (Killelea, 2014), Williston
is able to mitigate waste management issues and code and building-safety violations arising in
these make-shift camps and start moving towards a planned vision of the future city. This boom
was not foreseeable to Williston 10 years ago, but it is always a good idea for towns and cities to
decide on long-term plans and invest in local infrastructure so that they can be resilient to
unexpected changes or trends. However, these temporary housing facilities may not be a smart
long-term investment because once the oil workers leave Williston, the city is stuck with these
$30 million structures (Killelea, 2014) without a population to use them. Wise city management
and future planning will help cities like Williston react to current demands and allocate resources
towards sustainable development while preserving the character and integrity of their city.
Another consequence of the oil boom for Williston and Williams County has been on
road conditions. Semi-trucks transporting heavy drilling rigs across the county have caused
damages to the roads, leading to development of new roads up equipped for more traffic
(Killelea, 2014). Once again, the city has increased infrastructure to meet the new demands on
resources using tax revenue and industrial developers. The accessibility and quality of life in a
city is often connected to the ease and safety of transportation and roads, so investing in
improved highways is undoubtedly a smart and sustainable allocation of financial resources.
Additionally, roads are a public good that can be used by any resident, even after the oil
companies have moved on.

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Local city laws concerned with zoning and growth directions, have all provided
challenges to rapid expansion in Williston. Williams County, where Williston is located, is
mostly agricultural land, and is zoned as such in the outskirts of town. The city has chosen to
annex some of this agricultural land for development of the above-mentioned road, but has
decided against annexing too much more for industrial and housing development (Killelea,
2014). The city also resisted giving permits for RV park development because the city wants to
encourage incremental growth instead. This is a strategic move because incremental growth will
bring people who are more willing to stay long-term, instead of encouraging a stampede of
migrants in RVs who leave once the oil is gone. Holding onto the Willistons individual identity,
as it meets the needs of its new population, will create a stronger and longer-lasting city.
While Williston worries about the infrastructural and zoning conflicts of the booming oil
industry, they must also consider the inevitable decline in population the city will experience
once the oil industry pumps the last drop of oil from the ground and leaves North Dakota in
search of undiscovered oil wells elsewhere. When a citys development and employment is based
on a non-renewable resource, that city needs to be able to survive once the resource is gone. The
uncertain timeframe of population decline means that Williston must invest most of its time and
money into projects that will improve the overall citys quality of life and make it an attractive
place to continue living. The town should also try to attract more job creators so the labor market
can continue when oil is gone. Population booms like Willistons will soon be a distant memory
as energy starts coming from renewable sources. Renewable energy will not follow the come and
go nature of oil and coal and instead can sustain a citys labor force indefinitely. It is critical that
Williston invest now in renewable infrastructure like schools and roads in order to avoid
becoming another oil ghost town with an overextended budget.

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The boom happening in Williston, North Dakota has caused a surge in expansion and
development headed by the town to meet the demands of its new population. Problems like
housing shortages and road quality were easily fixed, but the problem of deciding how much to
invest in this short-term growth is much trickier to solve. In cities like Williston, the only way to
emerge from a boom healthy and thriving is to use urban planning to provide a sustainable and
budget friendly. How Williston progresses will be interesting to see, and hopefully it will avoid
becoming a ghost town with nice roads and new, but empty, houses.

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Works Cited
Killelea, Eric. "Boomtown USA. The Magazine of the American Planning Association.
Aug./Sept. 2014: 24-28. Print.