The Williston City Commission is expected to appoint members to a newly formed housing advisory committee to look into issues of housing and infrastructure.

Forming a committee to address the issues comes in response to an idea suggested at a special brainstorming session the city held Jan. 26 before its regularly scheduled commission meeting.

Mayor Ward Koeser said the committee is to consist of between 12 and 15 members. Koeser said the committee is likely have two commissioners, a couple city staff members, developers and interested residents. He added the city might try to see if it can convince a local member of the North Dakota Petroleum Council to join as well.

“Our goal is that in the next 60 days or so, they’ll be able to make recommendations to the city commission as to where we should go,” said Koeser.

Koeser said discussion on nominations is likely to take a chunk of time during Tuesday’s city commission meeting. He said since the brainstorming session, the city has contacted developers and spoken with staff to see is interested in joining the committee. Koeser said they have received some feedback and interest from residents as well.

“It’s been interesting. I’ve had different people express interest in the committee and I’m certainly pleased with that,” said Koeser.

Having a committee formed from a group of individuals with different backgrounds and levels of experience should increase the odds of developing some strong recommendations, Koeser said.

“Perhaps it’s corporate wisdom from my years owning a business, but what I’ve found is that finding a solution is going to take different groups working together. If you get a good group of people and thinkers, they might be able to come up with some ideas that we hadn’t thought of,” said Koeser.

Koeser said the committee is likely to meet for the first time a couple of weeks after its formed. From there, he hopes the group meets once a week for an hour or 90 minutes.

After the 60-day period, Koeser said the committee should hopefully come back to the commission and present its findings. It should be able to present its options, how serious the risks are for each and be able to provide recommendations for action.

“The commission is ultimately going to have to determine how much risk they’re willing to take to facilitate development,” said Koeser.

The goal with providing infrastructure and then facilitating development, Koeser said, is to do so in a way with the least risk to the taxpayer, while staying ahead of the pace of growth by at least a year.

“In an oil town, you don’t want to overdrive your headlights. You don’t want to put in utilities for hundreds of lots and end up with a bunch of empty lots. You want to stay at least a year or two ahead with infrastructure if you were building about 50 homes a year,” said Koeser.

Koeser added this issue isn’t something they’ve allowed to remain on the back burner until recently. He said the city has been trying to do what it can for the past few years. Koeser cited a housing task force it started three years ago that met for a period of time, as well as a Williston Basin housing summit held a couple years ago.

With the increase in oil in the past few years, they were aware the housing issue was coming.

“If it weren’t for the drop in price of oil to $30, $40 per barrel we experienced, we would’ve had this housing issue come up last year,” said Koeser.

Koeser said the public is encouraged to call the city at any time with ideas regarding housing and city expansion. Citizens interested in joining the housing advisory committee can contact City Hall 577-8100, as a few openings available.

No matter which direction the city chooses to go, Koeser said the choices are by no means easy or cheap.

“The question is what’s the least amount of risk we can take while still being able to facilitate growth,” he said.