2017 Spencer Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Spencer, Iowa  2017  Comprehensive Plan

NORTHWEST IOWA PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION The Northwest Iowa Planning & Development Commission (NWIPDC) is a regional governmental organization whose mission is to provide community development, planning, economic development, and job training services to a nine county region in northwest Iowa. The region is comprised of the nine counties of Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, and Sioux along with the 79 member cities. NWIPDC’s offices are headquartered in Spencer at 217 W. 5 th Street in the Governmental Services Building. The NWIPDC has served and continues to support the community of Spencer, Clay County and each of the remaining member city and county governments in northwest Iowa since 1973. NWIPDC

CLAY COUNTY FAIR The Clay County Fair, known as “The World’s Greatest County Fair”, has been in operation since 1918. With over 300,000 people in annual attendance, the Clay County Fair topped its attendance record to date in 2013 by attracting almost 335,000 people for a week-long fair. Experiences at the fair include world-class Grandstand entertainment, daily livestock and horse shows, more than $100,000 in free entertainment, thousands of competitive exhibits, the thrilling Midway amusement park rides, every imaginable type of fair food, nearly 600 commercial vendors and the largest farm machinery display of any fair in the United States. The economic impact of the fair for people and businesses in Clay County was studied in 2013 by a private consulting

group. This study showed that the fair’s total economic impact to Clay County was $6.2 million, which was money spent in the county by the Fair Association and out-of-county residents. Also, with the fair being as large as it is, the Clay County Fair employs more than 750 people including full-time, part-time, seasonal, and Fair-time jobs. These employees average $1.6 million in wage earnings. State, local option taxes, and local lodging taxes generated by the spending participants, spectators and event promoters, totaled about $87,500.

In 2017, the Clay County Fair will celebrate its centennial or 100 th year in Spencer. As part of its 2017 centennial celebration, the Clay County Fair established the “Centennial Vision”. The Centennial Vision for the fair is a multi-year, multi-million dollar “make-over” of the Clay County Fairgrounds to make it a landmark facility and grounds for 2017 and many more years to come. The Centennial Vision consists of three (3) components, 1) Renovation of existing facilities, 2) Construction of new facilities, and 3) Installation of new infrastructure in the fairgrounds.

Clay County Fair East Entrance Gates

56 | P a g e

NW Iowa Planning & Development