NewsroomNew Residential Developments in Harper County Break Ground

• Blog

Back in 2022, EBH Engineering worked on a collection of projects — and a unique cross-city collaborative effort — for Harper County, KS and the HPCO Growth Initiative.

All in all, there were four projects we coordinated and collaborated on in conjunction with KDOT, KDHE as well as the cities of Anthony and Harper. We provided services related to:

• Streets and drainage
• Water lines
• Subdivision and site planning

Each of these services contributed to the groundbreaking that recently took place on May 28, 2025. The cities of Harper and Anthony now have well-planned sites to build out new residential communities.

The Importance of New Communities in Rural Kansas

In Harper, there are 11 new single-family plots. In Anthony, there are 16 single-family plots, 6 apartments, and 5 commercial lots.

These new developments weren’t built out just to fill empty space. The Sycamore and Sunrise 2nd Housing Developments serve a more strategic purpose for these communities and the county as a whole.

In order to keep rural areas like Harper County alive and thriving, businesses (like Harper Industries) need workforces. But without nearby housing, it can make it difficult to attract or retain employees.

As Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins explained in a recent interview:

“Rural Kansas is not doing very much. It just keeps losing, and we’ve got to get that turned around, and this is the way we’re doing it.”

So, the two cities partnered up to add more residences. They funded the base of the projects. The state then provided additional support via a $3 million BASE Grant to ensure they had the infrastructure to meet their housing needs.

To a Brighter Future

In order to grow, municipalities need to be willing to improve their existing infrastructure and to build upon their communities in a way that supports them. This is a big part of the work we do at EBH Engineering.