By ALAN J. ORTBALS
COLUMBIA/DUPO - Two developers are planning huge developments along Illinois 255 in the vicinity of the Jefferson Barracks
Bridge in Monroe County, Ill. but arguments over annexation threaten both projects.
The city of Columbia has entered into a development agreement with G.J. Grewe Inc. to develop 4,000 acres surrounding the
Fish Lake Road overpass over 255. The development agreement encompasses
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Gravois Bluffs, a large retail area in Fenton, Mo. by Crestwood, Mo.-based G.J. Grewe Inc., is an example of the type of
development Grewe plans to create for the city of Columbia, Ill. But the city's current wrestling match with the village of
Dupo (due north) over annexation may complicate those plans. |
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Southwestern Illinois' population shuffling from American Bottoms to Bluff cities
By KERRY L. SMITH
Much like St. Louis' population movement westward from the city to St. Charles County and beyond, Southwestern Illinois has
seen a similar migratory trend - although on this side of the Mississippi River, it has been a movement from the Bottoms to
the Bluffs.
What the two slices of the bi-state region have in common, urban planners agree, is that both areas have seen a trend of
movement away from the core cities and out to the suburbs.
According to U.S. Census figures from 1990 through 2003, Southwestern Illinois' most populated counties, Madison and St.
Clair, which together comprise roughly 600,000 residents, have not experienced net measurable growth. Since 1990, Madison
County's cumulative population increase - as of a U.S. Census estimate performed in July 2003 - was 4.95 percent. For that
same
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Parsons Place enters second phase
By AMANDA COOK |
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If the strength of cities lies in their neighborhoods, then East St. Louis should prepare itself for positive changes.
The Parsons Place housing initiative in the Emerson Park neighborhood has begun Phase II of development, following what
developers and community leaders say was an overwhelming response to Phase I.
"We really underestimated the demand for this, and so did everyone else," said Barbara Freeland, executive vice president
for McCormack Baron Salazar Inc. The company is partnering with the Emerson Park Development Corp. to develop the project.
Phase I is comprised of 171 units of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, of which 75 percent were leased under the
low-income housing tax credit program and 25 percent are market rate
apartments. Phase II will include 102 similar units.
"We're not talking about just lower-income residences," Freeland said. "We are doing a mixed-income development so
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Phase II of Parsons Place, in the Emerson Park neighborhood of East St. Louis, is ready to move forward. Developer
McCormack Baron Salazar Inc. will build 102 affordable housing units to add to the 171 units it completed in 2001.
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