Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney touts growth while saying $70M is needed to invest in core neighborhoods

(Fargo, ND) --  Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney is touting the city's recent growth, and says his goal is to make that growth sustainable for years to come.

"We've had continued growth and success. The community is continuing to grow. We are economically, we have a good economic balance in the community. We have education, medicine, manufacturing. We have great partners throughout the community in the businesses that continue to make it grow," said Mahoney.  

Mahoney says taxes in the city are currently "reasonable" and says the city is also currently offering services the community wants. Mahoney says when he first started serving on the city commission, the value of annual building permits pulled in the city ranged from $250 to $300 million per year. For 2022, he says permits total more than $800 million. 

Despite the rosy numbers, the mayor is expressing concerns that rising interest rates could hamper growth. 

The mayor is also talking about housing.

He suggested the city might try to come up with incentives for contractors and others in the city to fix up aging homes in need of repair.

"So the city put away one million dollars this year to help with core neighborhoods and we were told in the study I had there were 1,500 home at risk that needed about $35,000 of fix-up in those communities. 

Mahoney says city staff has informed the commission that over 10 years, $70 million is needed to reinvest in neighborhoods. The Mayor says one way to approach that is to provide incentives to the private market to fix up the homes and then sell the properties. 

Mahoney made the comments while appearing on Thursday's with Tony and WDAY AM 970.