30,646

Despite a slowdown in the mineral economy, Gillette has actually grown over the last two years, according to projections by the city planning department.

The population is estimated at 30,646 as of Jan. 1, according to a recent report by the planning division of Gillette’s Engineering and Development Services Department.

“Where we ended up this year was in the low growth range, but nonetheless we are still growing and have consistent growth,” Senior Planner Michael Surface said.

The community has been growing during the last 10 years, Surface said.

“Based on the census, the community grew by 49 percent, which is an average of 4.9 percent a year. That’s high growth.”

The U.S. Census Bureau’s data on the population of Gillette in 2010 was 29,087 and in 2000 its count was 19,646, showing a high population growth of 9,441 new residents.

The transition from high to low growth began between 2010 to 2011 and continued from 2011 to 2012, Surface said.

Surface said he doesn’t look for any boom in the near future, citing a soft and uncertain national economy.

“I do see us growing though,” he said. “I think that we’re pretty consistent about the growth. I think there is a certain amount of economic strength there, that’s important. There’s continued faith by investors in the community and in the future of the community of Gillette.”

Business

You just can’t look at the development of a community and just focus it down into just how many building permits have been issued. You have to take a look at the full view of everything, Surface said.

“The expansion we’ve seen for commercial shows that retail is paying attention to our housing count. It shows that there’s faith in the Gillette economy and there’s a lot to have a lot of faith about.”

Gillette has the second highest median family income in the state of Wyoming after Jackson, according to planing department statistics.

“This county contributes more to the state tax revenues than any other county, I believe,” Surface said. “We have an economy that people need — which is energy, minerals — and that helps us have an ongoing economy.”

Gillette saw continued investment by the private sector and has ongoing continued investment by the public sector, Surface said.

Some of the highlight projects from 2012 are Qdoba Mexican Grill, Autozone, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Craft, Old Chicago Restaurant, and the new elementary school to replace Lakeview, which was given planning approval in 2012 and will start construction this year.

The Madison water pipeline project is going forward and the city also extended Boxelder Road out to Burma Avenue.

Housing

“The average vacancy rate for houses and trailer parks crept up again this year,” Surface said. “I think that’s primarily because of a slowdown in the mineral economy.”

There’s more rental space now than last year, which reflects the overall trend of the increased vacancy rates.

The vacancy rate for rentals in apartments and other buildings was 7.5 percent in 2011 and it rose to 8.1 in 2012.

Similarly, the rate of availability for rentals in mobile home parks was 8.2 percent in 2012, up from 7.9 the year before.

In the past, coal mines have used a lot of contract companies to do welding, to lay pipe, to haul in dynamite, to do earth work, Surface said.

“Now that there’s a slowdown in the economy, there’s been less coal mined and that also has an impact on the coal mines laying off some of their contractors and in some instances laying off some of the workers in the mines,” he said.

2012 was the first year since 2009 that new housing permits grew from one year to the next instead of dropping from one year to the next.

“I think that’s very important because the new housing is built by local contractors and it puts people to work when people buy those houses,” Surface said.

There was an increase in building permits for residential remodels over last year but the valuation was a little lower than the year before, according to planning department statistics.

“It was good to see the increase in number. It shows that people want to continue to invest in their home,” Surface said.

“We’re in a slower growth mode, but my guess is that there’s probably not lots of communities that are our population size that are turning out the numbers in 2012 like we did here in Gillette.”

“When you take a community like ours, with a population of 30,000, isolated geographically and with the economy that we do and I see the numbers that I see in 2012 ... I think 2012 was a good year and I think that is good news, yes I do.”