When we moved to Rapid City, South Dakota in 1995, we purchased a home that was outside of the city limits. As frequent visitors to the area before moving there, we enjoyed the Black Hills and the thought of having a home in or near the woods was attractive to us. With two teenage children in our home, we felt that it was a good time for us to live a bit farther from our work than had been the case earlier in our careers. Church work can be very consuming of time and energy and it was important to us to have some reasonable boundaries between our home and work. And the neighborhood where our home was located seemed like a wonderful place to live with covenants that called for open yards and minimal fences, natural colors on the exterior of homes, and streets free of overnight parking.

Our neighborhood homeowner’s association contracted with the county for snow removal from our streets and for many years we enjoyed excellent support from the county plows. Most of the time the streets in our subdivision were cleared long before city crews finished plowing in the city. Our neighborhood had a water system with two reliable wells and all of our utilities were buried, which saved us from power outages that plagued some neighborhoods with power lines subject to ice storms and high wind. We lived close to the fire hall of our volunteer fire department which had a mutual aid agreement with the city fire department and provided excellent emergency services.

The ten-mile commute to work seemed a bit long at times, but we quickly adjusted to the back and forth driving. There were a few times when I wished we had a neighborhood grocery store, but we learned to keep the pantry stocked. After having lived for a decade in a larger city, we appreciated the lack of the drama of city politics. We joyfully settled into our home.

After we had lived in that home for around 20 years, the boundaries of the city had grown to the edges of our subdivision. Our neighborhood water system was aging and our homeowner’s association was facing the specter of very expensive repairs with no reserves to cover the expenses. A vote to become annexed by the city was proposed. I was skeptical about being incorporated, and was not reassured by the informational meetings held at the fire hall. Nonetheless, the vote was taken and our neighborhood was incorporated into the city.

Incorporation brought with it a few short term problems. The connection to the city water system required each homeowner to install water pressure regulators and make some other plumbing upgrades. The increased pressure in the water supply lines caused break after break in the buried pipes supplying homes. Homeowners were responsible for the pipes between their homes and water meters and one by one we noticed excavators working in our neighbor’s homes. When our turn came, it cost thousands of dollars to have the line from the water main to our meter replaced. To top matters off, the city was much slower to provide snow removal than the county had been and our commute to work was made more challenging each time significant snowfall came. Our property taxes went up with incorporation, but the increase was far less than we would have had to pay if we had remained outside of the city and had to pay our portion of the water system upgrades. However, we adjusted to the changes and became part of the city.

When we bought our home here, we ended up purchasing a home that is, once again, outside of the city limits. We live in an established neighborhood in a tourist community, but our address is that of a town five miles from our home. Children in our neighborhood have to ride the bus those miles to attend school. We don’t have our own post office, and it is a bit of a drive to get basic supplies such as groceries and medicine.

Despite our official status as a “census designated area,” it feels pretty much like we live in a small town. It is a community that is based on tourism, but even that has changed in recent years with many of the homes having been sold by Canadian owners who were not able to visit them when the border closed due to the Pandemic. Those homes have been purchased by neighbors who have jobs that allow for remote working, also a product of pandemic changes.

Now a group of our neighbors have proposed and are working for our community to incorporate into a town. They believe that a community could be organized with our own services by diverting tax dollars that currently go into the county, the police force of a nearby city, and the school district and our community would have better community services if we took responsibility for our own governance and services. They point out that were we to become incorporated according to the currently proposed boundaries we would be the fourth largest community in our county, larger than the town that gives its name to our addresses.

Once again, I find myself to be skeptical of proposals to make the change. And once again we realize that it is quite possible that we have purchased a home in the country that will be inside a city when the time comes to sell it. I am not passionate enough about my doubts to attend community meetings or become involved in the politics of incorporation. I can see arguments both in favor or and opposed to becoming incorporated. I definitely lack the passion of some of our neighbors who are working toward incorporation.

Our experiences in South Dakota lead me to doubt the claims that our taxes won’t go up with incorporation. I understand our neighbor’s desire for more urban services and for increased say in self governance, but I know that those things come with a price. For now, I’m comfortable just waiting to see what develops. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get to change our address without the hassles of moving.