St. Charles Sees Growth on the Edges in U.S. Census

Most nights, an outdoor sand volleyball game is going on in New Town just outside and .

“People here are always out walking their dogs, riding their bikes, riding kayaks (in lakes and canals), whatever,” said Cherie Hufford, owner of New Town’s .

is Whittaker Builders new urban community,. It is a meticulously planned neighborhood with beautiful homes that Hufford said seem too perfect to be real.

“We call it ‘the Truman Show town."

Ten years ago, nothing was here but farm fields. Now, thousands call New Town home and more come to bike, walk or play volleyball.

The 2010 Census shows St. Charles has 65,794 people, a population increase of about 5,500 people since 2000, which translates to nine percent growth. New Town accounted for 2,500 of those newer residents.

Before the housing crunch hit in 2007, New Town was one of the hottest selling communities in the region. But builders throughout the country were hit hard by the recession, and Whittaker Builders filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. It auctioned off about 300 acres adjoining New Town as part of the agreement with First Bank.

Still, Whittaker Builders officials say 2010 New Town sales exceeded their expectations. The company is opening up new areas for development.

“Houses are a great deal in New Town,” said Prudential Select real estate agent Ben Limbaugh. “They’re a lot better deal now than when they first started selling.”

New Town and Charlestown in the north and new developments in the southern parts of the city, such as Montclair and Talbridge, accounted for nearly all of the growth in St. Charles and then some.

Together, those communities account for more than 5,500 new residents, which means other areas in St. Charles lost residents.

Neighborhood life cycles

“I saw a map that indicated in the heart of the city there was a loss,” said Bruce Evans, community development director for .

Evans said census tract information has not yet been released, but he expects to find much the same when the Census Bureau does hand over the information.

Many of the city’s older neighborhoods were built in the 1950s and 1960s when the area first started to boom.

“If there was a loss in those neighborhoods, it was because people’s kids have grown up and graduated and moved away from home,” Evans said. “Those are some of the most stable neighborhoods in St. Charles. People in them keep their homes and their lawns maintained.”

He said it’s part of a natural life cycle for neighborhoods: people move in, raise their families, the children grow and move out.

Still, said one of her concerns is distressed housing, especially homes in St. Charles’ older neighborhoods.

“We need to look at ways to help them through different vehicles,” Faith said.

The city offered about $123,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for home improvement loans in 2010.

“I want to increase that, to get more money to invest in St. Charles homes,” Faith said. “I also want to get word out to more people about the program.”

She said it’s not that St. Charles has blight problems yet, but with aging homes in some neighborhoods and an aging population, she wants to keep blight at bay.

‘Wait until I die’

Two women sewing a quilt in the St. Charles Senior Center talked to Patch about their homes.

“We both still own our own homes in St. Charles,” said one of the women, who declined to give her name. 

She has owned the same house since 1965 and raised her family there. bought nearly all the homes around her for student housing, she said.

“You can tell the Lindenwood homes because they don’t have mailboxes. Students get their mail on campus,” she said. “I have a good bunch of kids around me. But you can tell it’s institutionalized because there’s no flowers or shrubs like there were when families owned them.”

But she has no intention of selling her home to Lindenwood. Not in this lifetime.

“They’re going to have to wait until I die,” she said.

The other woman’s husband built their home in 1949.

Evans sees the university as a key to developing the inner core neighborhoods of St. Charles, bringing amenities that exist in the newer areas.

“I believe that campus is a major stabilizing influence on the neighborhoods around it,” Evans said. “You have a large number of kids coming in because of Lindenwood. They want to eat out, they need book stores, they shop in the area.”

A new DESCO Group development called Lindenwood Village is planned on First Capitol across from Lindenwood. The development is expected to bring a new Schnucks grocery store, a place for a relocated post office and new retail into the older section of town.

“I believe DESCO is anticipating that Lindenwood students will be major supporters of that new shopping center,” Evans said.

Former St. Charles Mayor Patti York said it takes one or two businesses to invest money and jumpstart rejuvenation, and she expects that will happen with Lindenwood Village.

“I think businesses will see here’s a destination to get to,” York said. “I think you’re already seeing some of that take place.”

She said it’s critical to get younger people to stay in St. Charles.

“When these kids graduate, how do we keep them here?” she asked.

Amenities are a key to attracting a younger crowd, she said. That means sowing seeds for redevelopment. Faith said jobs also are key.

“One thing that goes hand-in-hand with housing is jobs,” she explained. “If we have jobs available, it brings people into our community.”

The new mayor noted that recently earned an accreditation awarded to just a few labs around the world. ELTEK will announcing its accreditation May 6 with a celebration.

“That could bring job expansion to that company,” Faith said. “If our businesses grow, then St. Charles will grow.”

‘People just love it’

Moving the post office off of Fifth Street also will allow to expand, a critical move for a neighborhood with an aging population, York said.

“You have amenities farther out in the newer communities,” she said. “You have to look at how can you have amenities in other areas, where you have older, more affordable housing."

Evans said, “I think it speaks volumes that, in the middle of the worst recession any of us here has ever known, we’re still talking about new developments.”

Continued growth is essential to the city, Evans added.

“There are hundred-acre tracts here and there, but do we have 800 and 900-acre tracts left in St. Charles? No,” he said.

New Town is only about 20 percent completed. Talbridge is at 50 percent, Evans said. Over the next 10 years he predicts those communities will account for most of the growth in St. Charles.

York said continued growth for St. Charles means one thing.

“You have to go up,” she said. “High-rise condos are being planned along the riverfront, and those are aimed at attracting younger people. The interesting thing is when they built lofts down on Washington Avenue (in the city of St. Louis), they brought younger people, but they also got retired couples who liked that lifestyle.”

The same things are planned for the Streets of St. Charles, a mixed-use development on the Noah’s Ark site, and Harbor San Carlos, a longer-term riverfront development just south of Interstate 70.

“That’s the kind of diversification has given St. Charles its own personality,” York said.

“We have some of the oldest, most historic homes in the county and some of the newest homes,” she said. “It goes from old to young, affordable to high-end.”

“People just love it.”