Focus 11:

Focus 11: Eastward Flight
By Kathryn Jamboretz
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The Metro East used to be one of the few places around where you could spread out.

Family farms stretched for miles and homes still existed where it was hard to see a neighbor. But, times are changing and Illinois communities are struggling due to the pressures of suburban sprawl.

Madison and St. Clair counties are booming. The Metro East has affordable land and motivated politicians. The result is a housing explosion.

"Highland only grows about 3 percent a year, so we're not seeing some of the huge growth that you're seeing in some of the places like Glen Carbon, Troy and Edwardsville, places like that where there's double digit growth. We know we're on the cusp of a real growth spurt, because there's developers coming in from outside of town developing residential properties," said Highland Mayor Rob Bowman.

Land once used only by farmers is now the foundation for the suburban dream. Rob Bowman, the outgoing mayor of Highland, has helped shepard the building boom here.

"All together if you take all of this that we're looking at right now, including across the road there's probably enough for about a thousand home sites," said Bowman.

And that's just at one intersection. Some of the smallest towns are growing the fastest. In the span of just one year, Glen Carbon saw new home starts jump 40 percent and, in Collinsville, new homes jumped 100 percent.

"The crowding, the traffic, the small town feel. You know, when we first bought our property, we drove and saw nothing but corn fields and farm. Now all the farms are gone. Within two years, everything that was farms will be suburbs, you houses and subdivisions. It's just crazy. It's everywhere," said Brandi MacManus of Grant Fork, Illinois.

Brandi MacManus dreamed of raising her family in a rural setting. She and her husband picked the town of Grant Fork, Illinois, just outside of Highland.

MacManus just learned that because of overcrowding her daughters would be split up and bused away from their neighborhood school.

"My youngest daughter, who will be in first grade next year, will be in Al Hambra, which would be at least a 45 minute bus ride and then my oldest daughter, who will be in the third grade, would be in New Douglas and that would be about an hour on the bus," said MacManus.

So just how many people are buying houses in Illinois? The Home Builders Association of Southwest Illinois says in St. Clair County there were 1,100 new housing starts in 2004 and in Madison County they broke ground for 1,400 new homes.

Then there are the farmers, who watch in disbelief as concrete is poured over fertile farm land.

"Years ago when we first started farming in 30 years you could look around and see two maybe three houses. Today we are farming right up against folks backyards. It adds a new dimension to production agriculture," said Illinois farmer Greg Gunther.

Greg Gunther and his family farm 700 acres of soybeans and corn just outside Belleville. That farm is now an island encircled by half a dozen new home developments. The combination leads to some pretty unusual situations.

"You know the biggest challenge we have is the traffic. Our tractors move about 20 miles an hour. They are big and they take up more than one lane, you know," said Gunther.

But farming is their life. They make an effort to be good neighbors, but plan to stay for the long haul.

"The flip side of the coin is that we have no intention of selling out, but you are an island. You realize it when you drive down your driveway. Yes, we are and it's an island I'd kind of like to live on, too," said Gunther.

Gunther says his in-laws, who own the farm, do get several offers every year for their land. Imagine how much money that is. They have 700 acres and these new homes are generally being built on about a half-acre of land.

The upshot for many farmers who are ready to sell is that they can profit handily.

Who pays for all these new roads and school buildings? So far, the state of Illinois has picked up the tab for many of the road projects, but now places like Highland expect they are looking at tax hikes to keep up with all the work they need to do.