Check out the Dallas County are road map here. As the fastest growing county in Iowa, Dallas County is facing a future of promise and challenge.
Growth is the contributor to that outlook.
The western suburbs of Des Moines are spreading westward over the county line and those suburbs are annexing portions of the county for residential and commercial development. The main avenues of growth are westward along Highway 6 to Waukee and Adel, westward along U.S. 80 to Van Meter, and Northwest on Highway 141 to Granger. The expansion into Dallas County is also by em-ployers which now gives residents in cities in the central part of the county only a 20 minute commute to work. As the eastern part of the county is suburbanized, the growth will challenge the ability of local governments to provide municipal services to the rapidly increasing populations. The governments are also challenged in how to merge the new developments with what were essentially small towns.