The City of Williston, epicenter of North Dakota’s now-faded oil boom, has been fighting a war on certain business models. Whether it’s food trucks or crew camp facilities serving workers who rotate into and out of the region, the city has been using the law to eliminate competition with more permanent business models. Like restaurants…
AG: City of Williston Broke Open Meeting Law With Meetings About Man Camp Ban
A federal judge has enjoined the City of Williston from enforcing a controversial ordinance which would have banned temporary worker housing businesses from operating there starting July 1. Part of the federal judge’s reasoning for issuing the injunction was his opinion that the city had likely violated their own ordinances requiring a super-majority vote to…
Judge: The Williston City Commission Ignored Their Own Ordinances, Attorney In Banning "Man Camps"
With demand for housing fading alongside oil industry activity, the Williston City Commission decided to try and shore up demand for overbuilt hotel rooms and apartment units by banning crew camps within their jurisdiction. Crew camps are temporary housing built by companies to serve workers who rotate in and out of the region. The idea is…
Target Logistics Sues The City Of Williston In "Man Camps" Fight
The folks at Target Logistics just dropped a press releasing announcing a lawsuit, filed in both state and federal court, against the City of Williston over the man camps fight. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Williston’s city leaders have passed an ordinance to ban man camps – or “crew camps” to…
The Folly Of Williston's War On Mobile, Temporary Businesses Is Now Clear
I’ve written pretty extensively about the fight in Williston over “man camps,” but that city has been fighting a lot of different types of mobile, temporary businesses for years now. And that has been a mistake, as we can see now in 2016. The man camps, or crew camps, are housing facilities catering to energy…
Williston City Leaders Take A Shameful Stand Against "Man Camps"
In Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged the author invented something called the “anti-dog-eat-dog” rule. In the story, the characters create it to stop “destructive competition” between railroad companies. Rand intended the law to be a satire of companies which seek to maintain their market share not by managing their businesses well but by getting the government…
If We Have Too Much Oil Patch Housing Let's Stop Subsidizing It
In Williston housing developers – people and companies who have built apartment buildings and hotels and single-family homes – have overbuilt the market. With oil prices in the tank, and workers leaving oil patch communities, they’re finding it hard to fill what they’ve built. As a short term solution, they’ve decided to kneecap the competition.…
Shutting Down Man Camps Is The Very Definition Of "Picking Winners And Losers"
If you observe North Dakota politics long enough you’ll eventually hear someone make this remark: “The government can’t pick winners and losers in the marketplace.” It’s a reference, and one most in the state generally agree with, to the idea that the government should be neutral in the market. It should enforce the laws and regulations,…
Jon Godfread: Don't Make Knee-Jerk Decisions On Man Camps
As the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, we don’t often get involved in many local decisions; rather we maintain our focus on statewide policy issues. However, recent action by the Williston City Commission regarding workforce housing is so contrary to the free enterprise system, we feel we must weigh in. This decision will negatively…
Let The Market Decide The State Of Oil Patch Housing
Back in 2013 I asked this question: “Should the rapid housing development in North Dakota, and the state government’s efforts to fan the flames of that development, be seen as a good thing?” Now in post-oil boom 2015, we’re getting headlines like “The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota’s Man Camps,” from Bloomberg, or “North…
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