The Highlands, KS

The Highlands is a Reno County city north of Hutchinson, built from 21 platted subdivisions around the Crazy Horse Sports Club and Golf Course. Residents incorporated it on July 18, 2017, making it the county's fifteenth city of the third class and its first new municipality since Willowbrook in 1952. Road maintenance was a major reason for creating the city: the new government could collect tax revenue for streets that had been handled through the surrounding subdivision arrangement. The setting is a patch of sand hills and residential roads just beyond Hutchinson's northern edge.

City ordinances work alongside property-owner covenants, so building permits, zoning, road projects, and the golf complex all sit within one small municipal framework. The Highlands follows an R-1, residential-only development plan, while nearby Hutchinson supplies shopping, jobs, and larger services. Students attend the Nickerson-South Hutchinson USD 309 district, linking the city to schools beyond its own boundaries. There is little commercial center here; the golf course, subdivision streets, council meetings, and road work define the place. The Highlands is a deliberately assembled municipality whose boundaries follow the needs of a built neighborhood.