Jamestown council to weigh Buffalo Estates infrastructure agreement

The Jamestown City Council is expected to take up a developer agreement for infrastructure work in Buffalo Estates First Addition, the northeast Jamestown subdivision marketed as Buffalo Estates and planned between 5th Street NE and 13th Street NE, west of 27th Avenue NE. The site sits east of the Two Rivers Activity Center and south of the Jamestown Regional Airport.

The city’s revised housing program allows up to a 50/50 cost share between Jamestown and private developers for infrastructure on new residential lots, with $1 million set aside from the 224 City Sales Tax Fund Economic Development line item. That help is not automatic: the program requires a developer agreement, at least five lots, and any other conditions the city sets.

Jamestown also relies on special assessments as its primary method for funding public improvements, with costs assigned to the parcels that benefit from the work. In Buffalo Estates, that framework points to the kind of early infrastructure that makes a subdivision usable, including stormwater, water, sanitary sewer and street construction.

The city has already moved Buffalo Estates through earlier land-use steps. On June 2, 2025, the City Council approved the preliminary and final plat for Buffalo Estates First Addition and changed the zoning for Blocks 1 and 2 from R-1 to R-1-A, allowing one-family and duplex or two-family residential uses. City agenda materials identified a land-use amendment from vacant or agricultural ground to single-family residential district.

At a special meeting on Feb. 23, 2026, Jonathan Lowry of Lowry Engineering presented an 80-acre master plan for the project. Lowry said the site includes about four drainage areas and that some low-lying ground would be difficult or expensive to develop without changes to the layout. He suggested abandoning the south portion of 23rd Street Northeast as one possible fix. He also said the property already has some sanitary sewer near the airport entrance, with sewer and water stubbed to 23rd Street, and noted that developers had been in talks with Jamestown Parks and Recreation about trail connections.