Buying Land in Burke County, North Dakota

A three-tier zoning structure: county, organized townships, and city extraterritorial boundaries

Burke County's Planning and Zoning Ordinance -- amended most recently in October 2025 -- gives the county direct zoning authority over its 11 unorganized townships. The county's 36 organized townships are a separate matter: they hold their own zoning authority under North Dakota's township-zoning framework, and the county's role there is limited to advising on state zoning standards rather than administering the rules directly. On top of that, incorporated cities in the county maintain extraterritorial zoning boundaries -- areas just outside city limits where the city, not the county or township, sets zoning standards -- and county documentation describes a realigned jurisdiction map clarifying exactly where each government's authority applies.

In practice, that means the question "is this parcel zoned, and by whom" doesn't have a single countywide answer in Burke County the way it might in a county with one unified ordinance. Before assuming a use is allowed, confirm with the Burke County Planning & Zoning office (or, if the parcel is in an organized township, that township's own board) exactly which government's zoning applies and what it currently permits.

Active drilling, not a mature or winding-down field

Burke County sits in the Williston Basin, targeting the Bakken and Three Forks formations, and its current activity level is real and substantial: 139 recent drilling permits and 559 drilled-but-uncompleted (DUC) wells as of an August 2026 snapshot, with Formentera Operations LLC, Chord Energy, and Kraken Oil & Gas as the most active operators. Production over the trailing six months has been running meaningfully above the prior six-month period -- typically a sign that new wells are actively coming online rather than a field in decline. For a surface-owner buyer, that means the possibility of new drilling activity, surface-use notices, and damage-compensation claims under the state's Oil and Gas Production Damage Compensation Act (see the state hub) is a live, current consideration here, not a legacy issue from decades past.

A county growing again, after decades of decline -- but a modest recovery, not a boomtown

Burke County lost population for roughly 80 years before the 2010 census recorded its low point of 1,968 residents. The 2020 census showed 2,201 -- an 11.8% increase, and the first sustained growth in generations, driven by Bakken-era jobs and in-migration. That's a genuinely different trend line than the county's own 20th-century history, and it's worth knowing if you're evaluating whether local demand for housing, services, or land has shifted. It's also worth keeping in proportion: this is real but modest growth, not the multi-fold population surges documented in boomtowns like Williston or Watford City further into the play, and 2025 estimates suggest the population has since eased slightly (to roughly 2,132) rather than continuing to climb.