Colfax Comprehensive Plan 2035

Interstate Engineering’s planning team created the Colfax Comprehensive Plan 2035 in the spring of 2024 to provide the City of Colfax with a guidebook for future development pressure. In ColfaxNow, the plan reviews the history and existing conditions of the city, including detailing the development pressure faced by the community from the nearby growth of Fargo and Wahpeton. It includes a discussion of the community’s infrastructure status and the planning process. ColfaxNext lays out goals and policies and develops an implementation timetable.

The city faces existing development pressures from the nearby growth of the Fargo-Moorehead metro area, Wahpeton, and a new event and performing art center. They have required infrastructure upgrades and expansions but needed guidance on what future growth should look like.

Interstate Engineering’s planning team utilized an innovative website design, www.colfaxnext.org, to allow easy access to the comprehensive plan and GIS future land use maps, focusing on the need for clear, concise communication with potential developers and new residents to the community. Interstate Engineering’s comprehensive plan balances the City of Colfax’s traditional, rural nature with its progressive views and desire for development and growth. We reviewed the existing infrastructure, land use, and government structure and utilized an intensive public input format to understand the community’s needs. We led the community through working sessions focused on housing, vision, and goal setting.

The City of Colfax can now confidently answer developers when faced with questions about future development needs, future land use, density, and infrastructure needs. Within a month of completion, the plan allowed community leaders to confidently work with a developer to require participation in an updated sewer lagoon and allow for a new development of rural homes.