Sprawling growth could mean long-term problems, survey says

Growth trends that worked for Missouri in an expanding economy may cost the state in the long run, according to "Growth in the Heartland" a report by The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

The study identifies the state's growth trends, the problems related to its growth, and makes recommendations for the future that include Tax Increment Financing reform and regional cooperation.

"It's valid research. And Brookings, obviously, is a most reputable firm that spent a tremendous amount of time in the state identifying a number of economic development related categories on growth and land use," said Greg Williams, vice president of economic development for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Williams took issue with some rather critical comments in relation to the Missouri Department of Transportation and to losing farm land.

"There are some fringe areas of land use and I think Brookings might have taken the liberty of maybe some internal political statements relative to the loss of farmland in Missouri and the loss of farm jobs in Missouri," he said.

" Losing land' to development was something that caught my attention and others in our industry we don't particularly feel that we lose land, we find alternate and/or better uses for property. And losing farm jobs to perhaps jobs that pay much more attractive salaries than that earned on the farm may be something we would take a minor issue with."

Population

Between 1990 and 2000, Missouri added 478,138 new residents, as its population grew 9.3 percent to 5,595,211 people, the report said.

The four smaller metro areas St. Joseph, Joplin, Columbia, and Springfield grew by 18.3 percent during the 1990s, adding a 111,637 new residents and accounting for a quarter of the state's growth.

Springfield was the state's fastest growing metro area growing by 15.8 percent in the 1980s, and by another 23.2 percent during the 1990s.

Minority residents accounted for half of Missouri's population growth during the decade, with the state's Hispanic, Asian and black populations growing substantially. And while minority populations generally live in urban areas, Missouri's growing Hispanic population dispersed across the state far more rapidly than other minorities, driven in part by growth of the meat- and poultry-processing industry in rural areas. "In Missouri, as elsewhere, Hispanics followed job opportunities," the report said.

Jobs

Missouri employment grew by 521,637 new jobs, or 17.4 percent, in the 1990s. However, as the national economy faltered, Missouri lost 55,000 jobs between July 2001 and July 2002 about 10 percent of the positions it gained in the previous decade.

The rate of employment growth in the smaller metropolitan areas of Joplin, Springfield, Columbia and St. Joseph was more than twice that of the St. Louis and Kansas City regions. The smaller metro areas added 107,000 jobs, expanding their combined job base by 28.8 percent.

The Springfield area was the state leader in job growth, adding more than 54,000 jobs.

Incomes have been rising, too. During the 1990s, Missouri's median household income, adjusted for inflation, grew 10.3 percent from $34,393 to $37,934 in 2000. That was greater than the national growth rate of 7.1 percent, but was still below the national average of $41,994.

Where growth happened

Residency in unincorporated, or "open-country," areas grew faster than residency within cities and towns. Open country living grew 12.3 percent in the 1990s a rate 50 percent faster than the 8.1 percent growth of towns and cities.

In the Springfield-Branson region, the open-country population jumped by 49,026 people, or 34 percent. Nearly 200,000 people now don't live in any town in the region, with nearly 50,000 of them residing in Taney and Stone counties alone.

In raw acreage terms, growth in the Springfield area consumed the most open space, with the region's population surge driving an estimated 25,900 acres 40 square miles of previously undisturbed land into urban uses between 1982 and 1997. This amounts to a 37-percent expansion of the region's footprint, while the area added 32.4 percent more people.

Except for Columbia, the main cities of the four smaller metro areas grew more slowly than their regions during the 1990s. While Springfield grew by 8 percent, its larger metro area grew 23 percent neatly three times faster.

Willard, Strafford, Republic and Battlefield, grew 30 percent to 50 percent. Places like Clever, Nixa and Ozark hit "hypergrowth," growing by 74 percent, 131 percent, and 88 percent, respectively, adding a total of 11,581 people.

Greene County grew by 15.6 percent in the 1990s, adding 32,442 people, but Christian and Webster counties grew even faster.

Christian grew at a 66.3 percent pace, making it the fastest growing county in Missouri. Webster grew by 30.7 percent placing it among the 10 fastest growing counties.

Together, some 45 percent of all new residents in the Springfield region 27,566 people settled in unincorporated areas.

Cost of expansion

More land was developed between 1992 and 1997 219,600 acres than in the preceding 10 years, when 215,800 acres of Missouri countryside was converted to more urban uses.

"Outside of Springfield, far-flung urbanization in once-bucolic country places represents a genuine threat to the very Ozark scenery that attracted growth in the first place," the report said.

As a result of growth, the report says:

Suburban and small town school districts are struggling to keep up. Suburban and fringe communities are especially stretched by the millions of dollars required for new school facilities.

Farmland is being lost throughout the state. The dispersal of population and jobs in Missouri required the conversion of 435,400 acres 680 square miles of fields, farmland, forests, or otherwise green space to "urban" use between 1982 and 1997.

Hunting and fishing spots are disappearing, especially in the St. Louis and Kansas City regions.

State heritage is at risk. Few know that Missouri ranks third after Virginia and Tennessee for the number of Civil War battles fought within its borders. However, the Washington, D.C.-based Civil War Preservation Trust deems 12 of Missouri's 29 battlefields threatened or highly threatened by development.

Country roads are getting crowded. "Actual congestion is developing on once-rural routes as thoroughfares like U.S. Highway 65 coming into Springfield or Missouri 14 near Ozark funnel the widening commuter traffic into and out of the cities."

Scenery and rural character are being eroded. Vast tracts of forest, stream, and grassland have been developed.

The state is fouling its waters.

Streams and small ponds in the suburbs have been harmed by construction practices, septic tanks and lawn fertilizer, and the addition of impervious surfaces.

Meanwhile, septic systems, fertilizer runoff and sewer system releases have compromised area lakes, causing algae blooms that threaten the Ozark area's $1.6 billion tourist industry.

The state's transportation system is strained. Longer, wider roads must be built to connect increasingly scattered population and job concentrations.

The state's total road lane mileage grew by 3,423 miles during the 1990s to reach 251,209. Nearly 72 percent of those new roads were built in the increasingly populated rural areas.

An emphasis on new roads in the last decade ignored maintenance of existing roads.

Rectifying the state's current highway maintenance backlog will require up to $645 million a year over the next 10 years some $242 million more than current funding provides.