Growth Rate Climbs After Years of Decline

After seeing the lowest population growth rate of the decade last year, city officials said Monday that more people now seem to be making this desert community their home.

In 1997, Lancaster’s population growth was 1.8%, according to the city’s Department of Community Development. This year, its population growth through the end of May is 3.2%.

The upward swing is a welcome sign for city officials who pitch Lancaster as a family-friendly town.

“We are delighted at the prospect of attracting so many new members to our community,” said Mayor Frank Roberts.

The population of Lancaster and other High Desert communities such as Palmdale boomed during the 1980s--largely due to the area’s thriving military activity.

Lancaster grew from about 45,000 residents in the early 1980s to just under 100,000 in 1990.

But the growth rate began to slow in the 1990s, largely because of the nationwide recession, said Assistant City Manager Dennis Davenport.

After population growth peaked at 4.87% in 1991, Lancaster’s rate remained at about 2.5% until 1994 when it shot up to 7.28% when inmates moved into a new prison, which also brought new residents to the community to staff the facility, Davenport said.

The next three years the rates dropped to 2.53%, 2.12% and 1.8% last year--before swinging back to 3.2% this year.

The statistics also show that, with the population growth, the percentage of vacant housing units--which had hovered between 9.16% and 10.77% from 1990 to 1997--has dropped to 7.78% so far this year, according to city officials.

Further growth is inevitable for a city of 94 square miles--much of it undeveloped--and whose population is expected to swell from its present 123,000 residents to 300,000 by 2020, according to projections.

“The growth opportunities are here,” Davenport said. “We are just concerned about the growth being orderly.”