(Waukee, IA) -- Waukee city officials are still awaiting official results from this summer's Special Census, but they say they have an idea of how fast it's growing. Director of Economic Development Jennifer Brown says the city is working to keep up.
"We say we grow by about seven residents per day," Brown says. "The 2020 census was about 24,000, so that's a pretty substantial amount of growth."
The city says more people means more amenities, businesses, and jobs.
"The benefits of having additional residents to our community is the businesses that are coming...and adding employment opportunities," Brown says. "We want people to not only have places to build their homes, but we want them to have places that they can work as well. We want them to have the parks to bring their kids to play in."
Among the changes needed to keep up with the growth is an updated water tower. Brown says the new tower holds around five times the amount of water as the old one.
"It was about 500,000," Brown says. "[The new one] is about 2.5 million gallons of water."
Official census results are expected by the end of the year, but Brown estimates the city will be in the 31,000 resident range. And by then, the city's first Target department store will have opened its doors.