Elk Run Heights, IA

Elk Run Heights is a Black Hawk County city in the Waterloo–Cedar Falls metro, just east of Waterloo. The 2020 census counted 1,069 residents. Waterloo Community School District serves the city, while Lafayette Road, city streets, and the nearby I-380 connection tie its neighborhoods to jobs and services across the metro. Elk Run Creek and the city park provide the local geographic names, but water, sewer, roads, and public works are the practical backbone. Waterloo remains the nearest larger service center.

Everette Sutton owned the original tract and laid out Sutton's First Addition in 1947. Residents petitioned for incorporation in April 1951, held their first mayoral and council election in June, and then built the pieces of a city: an Elk Run School in 1952, municipal water works in 1954, city hall in 1961, sewer connections in 1971, and paved roads in 1972. Elk Run Heights grew as a planned neighborhood beside Waterloo, with its own government and services inside the larger metro map.