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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 13-year span, St. Clair County's overall population decreased by 1.59 percent.

   Monroe County, the third-most-populated county in Southwestern Illinois, experienced a phenomenal population increase of 30.8 percent over the same time period.

   Although planners, realtors and municipalities aren't specifically tracking from which city to which city the flow of people is occurring, planners agree that the bulk of movement is from the "inner core" cities - those located in the flatlands bordering the east banks of the Mississippi River known historically as the American Bottoms - eastward and northward to where subdivisions are rising from cornfields, generally known as the Bluffs or the Uplands.

   This theory, according to Bob Koepke, professor emeritus of geography at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, explains the consistent, long-term migration away from the East St. Louises and the Granite Cities and an influx of population into the Edwardsvilles and the O'Fallons.

   "We're talking about two distinct population regions, the Bottomlands and the Uplands," Koepke said. "What we're seeing more and more is the movement from older, established residential communities into new areas with new subdivisions and new housing. What is happening is this: People are buying into the livability attributes and features that are offered in the Uplands - such as the suburban school systems - and they're not buying into the livability attributes and features in the Bottoms."

   John Herzog, economic development coordinator for Madison County, said two Southwestern Illinois population trends are clear.

   "There are definitely two things going on in Madison County," he said. "The first is that there is absolute (population) growth occurring in certain parts of the county such as Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Troy. The second thing is that some of the older cities - Alton and Granite City, for example - are not declining in population as much as they had been."

   O'Fallon/Shiloh and Edwardsville/Glen Carbon, Koepke said, have emerged as "focal points" in their respective counties of St. Clair and Madison.

   From 1990 through 2003, the city of O'Fallon (current population 24,006) experienced a population increase of 45.89 percent, according to U.S. Census figures. And the village of Shiloh, located just east of O'Fallon with a current population of 9,403, has enjoyed a whopping 254 percent increase in population over the past 13 years.

   "In the Shiloh/O'Fallon area, we're also seeing new people moving in who have never lived there before - not just the classing 'shuffling' effect we see elsewhere in the region," Koepke said. "There's also the broader recognition of the attributes we have here. Twenty years ago, your neighbors may have been from East St. Louis or Granite City…today, they're also coming from Connecticut."

   Southwestern Illinois' real estate community is not yet fully capitalizing on what this market is demonstrating, he said. "It's a learning curve, recognizing and tapping into a market segment that hasn't existed before."

   With frenzied growth comes the city's challenge to keep pace with its infrastructure and other basic services (see related story on page 8) and to stay ahead of the game by taking in enough revenue to support the additional homes and residents.

   Establishing and nurturing local leadership in the older Bottoms communities, according to Koepke, is critical to the Altons, the Madisons and the Saugets.

   "Because the base economy for these areas has traditionally been industrial, generally the average age of those living in these communities is older," he said. "Also, it can be harder to find local governmental leadership when the pool of people you're drawing from are those whose jobs do not put them into management positions. The majority of residents in these towns are very hard workers but not necessarily 'automatics' for leadership. Strengthening that skills base is vital."

   Stabilizing what economic base the Bottoms communities have left is critical, he added, but is difficult to do in the St. Clair County segment because there is not nearly as much economic base there as in past decades. "It becomes imperative to make the businesses work that are already there," he said.

   Alton Mayor Donald Sandidge said aggressively pursuing retail development is a wise course of action for Bottoms communities. Despite Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 70 percent tax increase on Illinois casinos statewide last year, he said, the city still sows $6 million of its $23 million annual revenue budget from Argosy's Alton Belle Casino.

   But relying on that revenue stream long-term, he said, is not a smart strategy.

   "Since the recent success of our retail development anchored by Applebee's along Homer Adams, we've been pursuing retail additional retail prospects along the Route 3/Homer Adams Parkway corridor," Sandidge said. "Gary Grewe (G.J. Grewe Inc.), the developer who brought us the Applebee's development, is going to be doing a mini mall a short distance east of there."

   But the high-growth Uplands cities don't have it all that easy either, according to Walter Denton, city administrator for O'Fallon, Ill.

   "There's a mistaken belief that the city is causing the growth and is in some way making the growth," he said, "but we're really just trying to catch up with it."

   Denton said O'Fallon's scenario is similar to other Bluff cities where the bulk of its city budget is derived from sales tax income, not property tax dollars.

   "Sixty percent of our revenue is from sales taxes," he said. "Even in O'Fallon, we have a very low property tax ($1). We haven't increased it in 20 years. The city decided a long time ago that a way to support our school system would be to let the school district have the property tax revenue, and the city would concentrate on getting its revenue through sales tax."

   Three years ago, the city council approved annexation fees which developers pay as a condition in their annexation agreements with O'Fallon. That fee per unit, Denton said, is $2,250.

   "It has helped pay for road improvements, parks and other city services," he said.