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2020 Winner

Watertown, South Dakota

Population: 23,000
Sometimes it’s the hidden gems that shine the brightest. Watertown, South Dakota, is an art- and nature-loving prairie town with a population hovering just below 23,000. What’s special about them? Well, they’ve been learning how to work from the bottom up.

Making Use of Every Space

When malls started popping up throughout North America, many towns watched their downtowns suffer. Watertown was no exception.

But over the past 10+ years, they’ve been working from the bottom up to make it easy for local businesses to get started.

The result? You cannot find an empty storefront. Most of the buildings are multi-use. They host not only commercial fronts on the main floor, but they have housing on the top and underground parking below.

The best part is these downtown buildings are mixed use, with housing above ground-floor businesses.

Parking Minimums

What’s one way Watertown has been making it easy for local business? They ended parking minimums. So now, local developers don’t have to struggle with unnecessary extra costs of building space for parking.

When the old railroad town was first built, parking lots didn’t exist, and the downtown was built with buildings close together so they could more easily share resources.

Watertown is not requiring parking to save what they’ve always had: a people-centered downtown.

Image credit: Watertown Convention & Visitors Bureau. Photographer, Chad Copus (South Dakota Department of Tourism). Used by permission.

Financial Resilience

Watertown preserves their financial prosperity in multiple ways. Here are a few highlights: