The City of Fargo has partnered with CZB Planning Consultants to create the “Fargo Growth Plan 2024,” a detailed plan outlining the call to action with the growing population and development of Fargo. “Fargo Growth Plan 2024 is a master plan to help navigate the Fargo community through a critical time in its development history,” states the core mission in the plan introduction.

Within just the last decade, the population of Fargo has increased by over 20,000. This is the most growth in population than any other 10-year period in Fargo’s history. As of the 2022 population census, 258,663 people reside in Fargo, a stark contrast to the 2010 census of 106,024 Fargo residents. In the growth plan, the rising population is not the only factor spurring change in the economy. The outline of the growth plan describes the need for development to relieve neighborhoods from the threat of regular flooding. 

The most recent growth plan in Fargo’s history was adopted in 2007 and mainly focused on land utilization, whereas the 2024 plan is stated to focus on much more within the community. The final plan document outlines four different parts to shape the growth of the city.

Part 1 is labeled “Fargo’s Growth History” and calls for an established understanding of historical growth patterns and what has shaped those patterns. Planners are looking to these patterns to find the next steps in Fargo’s development. Part 2 is titled “Intentions for Future Growth” and describes the intentions agreed upon in the planning process and will serve as a basis for development.

Part 3 is called “Framework for Practical Growth Management” and shows the framework that will push Fargo out of the planning stage and into the execution of the intentions. Part 4 is titled “Implementation Steps” and outlines the processes required in implementing the framework previously mentioned. The actual implementation of these policies to carry out the intentions described by the plan is heavily related to policy changes and financial planning done by the city.

The outlook of these intentions seems to target many prevalent and noticeable issues arising in Fargo such as affordable housing, land use and development and financial planning. 

These plans outlined by the final growth plan document and the Fargo Growth Plan website may seem quite technical and difficult to understand for anyone not familiar with city planning, but in an attempt to connect to the city of Fargo, the website includes a section titles “Education Resources” in which many sources are provided explaining the key concepts mentioned in the growth plan including but not limited to the description of land use, sprawl and principles for building better cities. 

While new development in Fargo seems to be at an all-time high, it is apparent that this is just the beginning of the community and infrastructural development to be done in The City of Fargo.