It Is What It Is, Worried Or Not --

Some worried that there is overbuilding in Dickinson: the city has 17 motels/hotels, with ten (10) more planned.

After August’s discussion, some were worried the Commission would put restrictions on hotels coming into the city and obstruct free enterprise. “Do you start limiting just hotels?” asked Comfort Inn Manager Melissa Johnson.

“Or are there other businesses you’re concerned about over-growing as well?” Data compiled for the meeting showed that Dickinson has 17 hotels with 1,332 rooms with another 10 in various stages of planning that would add more than 1,000 rooms.

Other Midwest cities studied by the city in the 30,000 to 50,000 population range had four to 18 hotels in with 166 to 1,600 rooms. Dickinson at the 2010 Census clocked in at 17,787 people. The city believes it has surpassed 20,000 based on billings and other data, and is projected to hit 40,000 in the coming years.

It would be interesting to see the list of "other Midwest cities" that were studied.