Otter Tail County’s Big Build Initiative a Success in Year One

OTTER TAIL COUNTY (KDLM) – Otter Tail County’s Big Build initiative saw success in year one.

The goal of The Big Build, launched in 2020 is to build new, preserve, or rehabilitate 5,000 housing units by 2025.

$39.3 million in housing investment was added in the County from 656 new and rehabbed housing units, 427 of these being new construction and 229 being rehabbed units in 2020,  a 19 percent increase in new construction county-wide compared to 2019.

“The Big Build initiative is truly an economic engine for the County,” said Otter Tail County Commissioner, Lee Rogness. Rogness explained the domino effect of housing growth on communities. “New twin homes open opportunities for older people to move into lower maintenance, smaller homes, which frees up multiple bedroom homes for families. When single-family homes open, new families can move to our communities. This benefits our schools, helps close the workforce gap, and brings welcome local spending to our business community. Housing growth also provides construction jobs and capacity growth of local tradesmen.”

The County’s property tax rebate program is one component of the larger Big Build initiative that was put into place to specifically encourage new investment and construction of single and two-family homes. This program also saw great success in its first year with 102 applications from across the County. Applicants to the program can receive up to a $10,000 rebate of their future property taxes, up to $5,000 of the County portion of property taxes as well as the City portion of taxes in select communities.

More information about the Big Build including details on how to apply for the tax rebate program can be found at bigbuildotc.com.