Economic boom of the '50s brought the 'burbs back to life
By SCOTT SIEVERS
News-Gazette Correspondent

   SAVOY - Decades ago, three villages slept soundly, each nestled seemingly far from the hustle and hassle of the county's municipal mammoths, Champaign and Urbana.
   Then an economic boom jolted awake St. Joseph, Savoy and Mahomet, and that explosion has since fused the trio into what some consider Champaign-Urbana's suburbs.
   While Champaign and Urbana's populations since 1900 have soared more than 500 percent, their growth since 1960 has fallen slightly behind the county's 26.7 percent pace, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 1998 estimates. But in that same time, those three villages ringing Champaign-Urbana have sprinted ahead, with St. Joseph seeing a 92.8 percent increase, Mahomet a 172.6 percent jump and Savoy a surge of 826.8 percent - and those numbers even lag behind population tallies from special censuses and estimates for the 2000 census.
   "That's essentially spillover from Champaign or Urbana," said Ted Jeurissen, community development manager with the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. "As Champaign-Urbana grows out, the growth has to go somewhere, and that's where it's growing."
   The villages often attract new residents because they typically can offer somewhat lower housing costs and taxes, strong schools, small-town atmosphere and convenient transportation for commuters, said Jeurissen, who himself lives in St. Joseph. Interstate 74 links Mahomet and St. Joseph into Champaign-Urbana, and U.S. 45 through Savoy becomes Neil Street in the heart of Champaign.
   Jim Armstrong knows all about this recent growth spurt. More than a decade ago, Armstrong moved west from Champaign to Mahomet, where he stayed for 10 years. He then moved back to Champaign but returned to Mahomet a year ago.
   Several things keep drawing Armstrong back to Mahomet, including its "quiet atmosphere," the "fantastic school system" his children attend, and Mahomet's citizens themselves.
   "The people are just great - they always have been, of course," he said. "Most people work in Champaign that live out here, but it's just away from the rat race. That's basically what it's all about."
   But Armstrong worries that those moving from Champaign-Urbana to Mahomet for its small-town feel just might be the village's undoing.
   "We used to live ... out there in Champaign, out by North Prospect," he said, referring to a newly developed, heavily retail area on Champaign's north side. "That used to be country. Now you know what it's like, and that's what I'm afraid is going to happen here."
   Mahomet residents aren't alone as they wonder just what their population boom could bust. East of Champaign-Urbana, in St. Joseph, Trish Downes says she's seen the village change since her family left Champaign 10 years ago.
   "When I moved here, there were only two roads in the Crestwood subdivision, and now there's like 20 or something. There's a ton of them," said Downes, a junior at St. Joseph-Ogden High School and a checker and manager at the St. Joseph IGA grocery.   "A lot of new people have come in. Everybody used to just talk to each other and everything, but ever since that happened, it hasn't been so much like that. It's not so small townish. I mean, it's still a small town, but it doesn't have the environment as much anymore."
   While Armstrong's Mahomet and Downes' St. Joseph have been bustling, neither can quite match Savoy. The village on the south side of Champaign incorporated just in 1956, and counted 339 residents in 1960. A special census in 1998 pegged Savoy at 4,095 residents,   increasing the number about 900 residents from the Census Bureau's estimate. Mayor Robert Mccleary said, "We look to be well over 5,000 by the year 2001."
   Regional Planning's Jeurissen said communities can create growth two ways: either bring in industry that generates jobs and housing, or bring in housing that generates commercial development. "If you have the people, the retail will come," he said.
   That's been the case with Savoy, which first saw apartments developed, then single-family homes, and now retail sites, such as its Festival Foods grocery store.
   "Residential development came first," Mccleary said. "They brought the people, and now we're trying to supply the people who have moved in here with the kind of commercial development that they need to not only live here but also to shop here."
   St. Joseph has a different history.
   "St. Joseph's been primarily residential," Jeurissen said. "There really hasn't been so much about commercial or retail development."
   It's true that residential development has driven St. Joseph's growth, Mayor B.J. Hackler said, but there hasn't been much business development because there isn't all that much room for it.
   "Our growth is completely filled up as far as the commercial area. We don't have empty buildings whatsoever," Hackler said. Still, the village would like to see some commercial development. "If we could get some light industry out here, we would definitely do it," he said.
   Despite the village's residential focus, entrepreneurs such as Todd Hitt have found success in St. Joseph. A village trustee and a Champaign firefighter, Hitt opened Body Tech, a 24-hour health club, back in October 1999. Since then, "we're up to about 200 members," a number that exceeded expectations, Hitt said. "It's amazing."
   Mahomet has seen both residential and commercial development. New residents are drawn to the village for many of the same reasons they move to St. Joseph and Savoy, village leaders say, but they're also attracted by Mahomet's unique physical qualities.
   "People like the parks, the (Sangamon) River and trees," said Steve Wilke, Mahomet village administrator. And compared with its central Illinois colleagues, Mahomet's "a little bit less than flat."
   Key to any community's development is infrastructure such as roads, water supply and sewers, Jeurissen said.
   "In order to compete for the growth that is going to happen, they have to have good, working systems in place," he said. "That ultimately means increased taxes to support those systems."
   Savoy's Mccleary knows that infrastructure is key to growth.
   "We have good utilities here," he said. "There's good water, good power available, the sanitary system. All of those things are necessary for development, and we happen to be in a place where that's available."
   About two years ago St. Joseph realized it needed to upgrade its nearly 60-year-old water system, but Hackler questioned whether the village could afford the bill. St. Joseph solved its problem by taking the unusual step of selling off its entire water system to Northern Illinois Water Corp., which has since spent thousands of dollars on improvements to the system.
   In Mahomet, the village took a substantial infrastructure step when it extended water and sewer service across the Sangamon River to the south and east, Mayor Jeff Courson said.
   "For the most part, the significant growth has been across the river to the east and across the river to the south," he said. "For that to be able to happen, water and sewer had to be south of the river and east of the river."
   Though St. Joseph, Savoy and Mahomet are all near Champaign-Urbana and each has seen substantial growth recently, not all nearby villages have. Bondville, for example, lies just seven miles west of Champaign, but its 1980 census tally of 442 residents hasn't changed much, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
   Bondville might not be seeing development because the village doesn't want to become another Mahomet or because it wants to keep a buffer between itself and Champaign, Jeurissen said, but its infrastructure might also be part of the reason.
   "Bondville's somewhat limited because it doesn't have a public sewer facility; everything's on septic systems out there," he said. "As far as commercial development's concerned, that really hurts."
   This spring Bondville residents will vote in an advisory referendum gauging interest in a sanitary sewer system, Jeurissen said.
   Rantoul is another village that could benefit from the growth radiating from Champaign-Urbana, Jeurissen said. By far the county's largest village with a population that once neared 26,000, Rantoul has been on the rebound since the closing of Chanute Air Force Base in 1993.
   "(Rantoul's) linkages with Champaign-Urbana are pretty well-established," Jeurissen said.   "Rantoul has really good potential for the kind of manufacturing that they have, and I think they'll expand on that. ... I think Rantoul will see substantial growth  first stabilize, then some growth. I think the hard times are behind them."
   Mahomet, St. Joseph and Savoy probably can expect to keep on growing in the future, Jeurissen and the mayors say.
   Mahomet's growth may slow down, Jeurissen said, but St. Joseph "has a long way to go yet." And Savoy likely will spread out further toward Philo, Tolono and elsewhere.
   St. Joseph's Hackler said the village needs condominiums, assisted -living housing for senior citizens, and more-affordable starter homes in the future.
   Savoy's future growth, meanwhile, will probably be largely residential, Mccleary said.
   "With the University of Illinois and their ... movement to the South Farms area, that puts a real blot on development to the east, so logically with the airport being south of us and the university taking up the property to the east, most likely is moving west," he said. A planned interchange linking Curtis Road with Interstate 57 could create growth on that side of the village, Mccleary said. "It's very hard to say how things would develop then."
   In Mahomet, the village plans to use an economic tool called a tax-increment financing district to spur commercial growth by offering incentives to developers. The village also intends to route commercial development along a corridor of U.S. 150 so Mahomet's commercial side can grow without encroaching upon the small town that attracted residents in the first place, Courson said.
   "You almost have to sacrifice an area," he said. "If we can keep Mahomet residential and put some of our retail and light industry out there, we would like to keep Mahomet with that small-town feel. ... People want to keep it a small town, but after the 10,000th person has moved here, their very act of moving here is driving that away, and that's what we're struggling with here."
   Betty Summers hopes Mahomet can strike that balance. Summers said she's lived in the village "forever," and she's seen it change.
   "It's gone from cornfields to subdivisions, and dirt roads to pavement, and unlocked doors to locked doors, and social neighbors to anti-social neighbors. Big changes," Summers said. "It's really boomed out."
   But the downside of growth hasn't gotten Summers down on her village.
   "Mahomet's a good town really," she said. "I still like it."

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