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Setting the Stage for
Growth
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Economic
developers in Southwestern Illinois manage business growth in the
industrial, commercial, warehousing and transportation sectors.
By Peter Downs
Growth is both a local and a regional issue, and nowhere is that
more evident than in southwestern Illinois, where officials have
worked out a division of labor that provides for both municipal
independence and regional cooperation.
Municipalities are responsible for policies dealing with retail
development and residential growth, says John Baricevic, chairman
of the St. Clair County Commission, while the county focuses on
business growth in the industrial, commercial, warehousing and transportation
sectors. “We do useful government incentives, depending on type
of business and the number of jobs it will create. We do low cost
loans and worker training, and we do tax incentives, depending on
the commitment of the company to the community.”
St. Clair County leaders also recognize that some issues are bigger
than county government. Working together with neighboring Madison
County and the State of Illinois, they developed a regional transportation
plan to put in place the infrastructure—roads, rail facilities and
barge facilities—necessary to accommodate industrial growth. The
result has won raves from Site Selection magazine and others,
which rate those counties among the best places in the nation for
warehouses and distribution centers.
In part because of their efforts, Arthur St. Onge, president of
the St. Onge Company, a national leader in logistics consulting,
says St. Louis is one of the 10 best places in the country to put
a distribution center. He says the Gateway Commerce Center that
TRiSTAR Business Communities is developing in Madison County has
the potential to be one of the top transportation and distribution
hubs in North America.
All that work sets the stage for growth, but the area hasn’t taken
off yet. Between 1990 and 2000, St. Clair County actually lost population,
according to the United States Census Bureau. In 2000, the county
had 6,170 fewer residents than in 1990, a loss of 2.3 percent of
its population.
Madison County grew by 9,703 people, or 3.9 percent, during the
same time. The net growth for Madison and St. Clair Counties, however,
is less than the natural rate of growth, which is the excess of
births over deaths.
A focus on transportation, however, runs through all the growth
strategies in the two-county area, not just those focused on industry.
Municipalities look at transportation intersections as the nodes
on which future growth can occur, be it commercial or residential.
Collinsville City Manager John Swindle says Collinsville has focused
growth efforts on land adjacent to Interstate 64, and it has used
tax increment financing (TIF) to build surface roads and sewers
to open the land to development. The first TIF district catered
to office buildings and distribution centers. The second will provide
infrastructure for an amphitheater.
Growth in this city has been almost wholly commercial, Swindle says.
There could have been even more growth, he says, but city leaders
adopted tough building codes in order to make sure they attracted
only high-quality development. They don’t want metal-sided buildings.
“Our goal is upscale development,” he explains.
City leaders in Swansea took the construction of the MetroLink light
rail extension as an opportunity to plan where and how they wanted
their city to grow. “We had proposals for big box stores and fast
food places, but that wasn’t exactly what we were looking for,”
says Mayor Michael Buehlhorn. “We were interested in a town center,
a place that is more like a destination.” To make the station friendly
to that kind of development, Swansea paid Bi-State Development Agency
to change its station design: changing the entrance, straightening
out the associated road, and reconfiguring parking. The community
zoned land near another MetroLink station for an upscale residential
development, which is already under construction. “It will be a
magnificent gated community,” Buehlhorn says. “It is going to be
great.”
Fairview Heights officials saw MetroLink and the reconstruction
of a state highway as a great opportunity to grow a neglected part
of their municipality, too. Mayor Gail Mitchell says the city paid
Bi-State $2 million to change its plans and put a station near where
the new highway route would intersect an existing highway. “It just
made sense to put it there,” he says. “We’re wanting to build it
up and make it work...we’re wanting to put businesses that will
coincide with the railway station.”
Belleville, city leaders recently adopted a comprehensive plan focusing
on the strengthening and developing residential neighborhoods—and
they see their new MetroLink station as the focus for one such residential
development.
In Columbia is a small Illinois town that is growing rapidly, because
it is near Interstate 255, and so is just a short drive from south
St. Louis County. The population of Columbia jumped 43 percent in
the nineties, from 5,525 in 1990 to 7,922 in 2000. As a result,
“we are definitely trying to guide our growth,” says Michael Hemmer,
the town’s economic development coordinator. “We need to grow commercially
to keep a balance in growth.” So, the town has incentives to encourage
business growth, but no incentives for residential developers. In
fact, to maintain the quality of residential rental units, the town
recently adopted a requirement for occupancy inspections, so that
such properties are inspected on a regular basis.
So far, city officials have resisted sentiment to limit future residential
development, even though “Everyone wants to be the last person to
move into town. You like it and don’t want it to change,” Hemmer
says.
City leaders are aware that growth can bring problems if they don’t
properly plan for it, he says, so they are trying to keep ahead
of growth. The school district, for example, took the initiative
to buy property for a future new school.
“We would prefer to grow slowly and soundly,” Hemmer says. “We have
the luxury of time to be a little choosy and a little picky. We’re
not under any pressure to attract a bunch of growth right away...and
realize the problems that would create. For the moment, city and
county services are keeping pace with the growth we’ve had, though
our ambulance service is getting a little stretched. In general,
property values seem to be headed up and tax rates are headed down,
which is what you want to see.”
Peter Downs is a free-lance writer and editor of Construction
News & Review.
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