What happens if Dixon stays the same size?

Keeping Dixon the same size might sound appealing, but it comes with some trade-offs that are worth understanding.

Over time, the cost of maintaining things like roads, utilities and public safety tends to go up due to inflation. Even if the city doesn’t grow, expenses like asphalt, electricity and equipment still get more expensive. If revenue stays about the same while costs increase, the city may eventually need to look at options like increasing taxes or fees just to keep services at their current level.

Infrastructure is another important part of the picture. Many city systems — things like water, sewer and drainage — need regular maintenance and occasional replacement, which can be expensive. When new development happens, it often helps pay for some of those costs. In some cases, developers also add improvements that benefit the whole community. For example, if a developer builds a new water well as part of a project, that can add more water to the system, improve reliability during busy times and help create a more stable water supply for everyone, not just the new homes. Without that added funding and investment, more of the cost would likely fall on existing residents.

Growth can also play a role in the local economy and to attract new types of uses, like retail, grocery stores, services, entertainment and job-producing uses. Commercial developers and businesses each have their own proprietary criteria to help them decide where to build or locate business. Some businesses look for a certain population size or income levels in a trade area or economic factors like leakage from a specific segment of the economy before deciding where it is economically viable to locate a new business. As a result, staying the same size may limit the types of shops, restaurants or services that residents might continue traveling to nearby cities for the amenities they want, which also means more sales tax dollars are spent outside our community instead of supporting local services and infrastructure and having the tax dollars benefit Dixon.

None of this means growth is the only path forward — but it does highlight the balancing act. A community that stays the same size may need to find other ways to keep up with rising costs, maintain infrastructure and support local services over time.