Illinois’ Rural Towns Are Hoping to Raise a New Crop: Homeowners

In an idle farm field on the edge of this one-stoplight town, Mayor Ron Hunt is sowing the seeds of a rural revival.

Where crops once sprouted from this field in east-central Illinois, Hunt imagines single-family homes for young families, condominiums for the retired, new businesses and a sports complex.

Hunt says the setting is bucolic, the schools are excellent and have plenty of empty desks, and the land is cheap.

So how does Villa Grove, population 2,700, hope to make it happen? By offering $10,000 grants to people who buy a plot and build a house within a year.

Using financial incentives and simple marketing campaigns that promote idyllic small-town life, communities throughout Illinois are attempting to reshape themselves by attracting new residents. Hunt and others think they have tapped into something--even if these towns often lack some of the basic needs of young families and sit miles from the nearest cities. Villa Grove is about 20 miles south of Champaign-Urbana with little more than farmland between the two.

“I think people are tired of the rat race. They want a nice, quiet place to live,” Hunt says. “For young families . . . this puts them in a new home.”

“I think people are willing to drive an extra 10 or 15 minutes to live in these places,” says Norman Walzer, the director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. “You can get the equivalent space for maybe half the price, and I think people have begun to accept that payoff.”

Jack Piper was concerned about the departure of young families and the depressed property values in his hometown of Ohio, Ill., so he led a successful redevelopment project there. He now runs his own development company from his home and helps other towns, including Villa Grove, do the same.

“Every town used to look for a widget factory to create jobs, but we didn’t know how to do that,” he said of his experience with his hometown. “We kind of came up with this idea, ‘What if we offer incentives to families rather than factories?’ ”

Piper says 19 new homes have been constructed in the town of Ohio and more than 30 new families have been drawn there in recent years, pushing its population from 428 to more than 500. Villa Grove has had inquiries from a handful of potential home buyers, and real estate agents and contractors are interested, he said.

New projects are on the drawing board or in progress in places such as Wood Hull, Oblong, Meridosia, Table Grove and Paw Paw.

One tool Piper has used in Ohio, Villa Grove and elsewhere is to have land that is targeted for development declared a tax increment financing district. This allows towns to secure loans for infrastructure improvements and then use tax revenues from the new homes to pay off the loans and make more improvements.

Kasper Urban and his wife took advantage of dirt-cheap prices in Ohio, buying a lot five years ago for $10 and constructing a home.

“I’d never go back,” said Urban, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side. “I like the peacefulness.”

Urban, 38, said he loves the local schools and feels the town is safe. He and his wife have two daughters, 8 and 11.

“We wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle and the traffic jams and find a good place to raise kids,” he said.

Urban admitted there are some trade-offs--the town lacks a large grocery store, for example--but said the commute is easy. He works for the post office in the town of Dixon, about 20 miles away.

“I’ve got one stop sign between here and work,” he said.

While some towns offer financial incentives, other recruitment efforts involve simply getting the word out. In Taylorville, the school board has mailed pamphlets to households in nearby Springfield and Decatur to attract families with young children to fill the local schools.

“There are so many communities that need it and want it,” Piper said. “Big-time developers were never going to come to these towns.”

Hunt said the response to Villa Grove’s proposed Pheasant Pointe subdivision has been enthusiastic, and he has heard little opposition from townspeople.

“At night you can leave your front door open. You can go for a walk and not get mugged or harassed,” he said. “There’s just a terrific amount of interest in what we’re doing.”

But some longtime residents aren’t convinced.

“I think he’s blowing smoke,” said Charles Bassett, who has lived in Villa Grove off and on for more than three decades. “He’s trying to make a big city out of a one-horse town.”

Bassett, a retiree, said he’d like to see the town address the concerns of the current populace, such as the chronic flooding of the Embarras River running through Villa Grove.

Some of the Illinois cities that could be affected by the departure of stable families have also raised concerns. School and city administrators in Decatur and Springfield have accused Taylorville of subtly attempting to lure only the affluent, leaving behind the poorest families.

Western Illinois University’s Walzer cautions that the transformation of small towns can be unsettling to their longtime inhabitants.

“You have people who have lived there all their lives, and suddenly their tax bills are so much higher. They want their children to stay in town, but they can’t afford a $200,000 home,” he said. “These people are really being priced out of their homes. I think that’s one of the effects.”

New residents may also want to raise taxes to pay for a new library or better municipal services, he said.

But proponents point out that higher property taxes lead to higher property values.

“That’s a pretty good trade,” Hunt said.

“For these little towns it ain’t a matter of options; it’s a matter of life and death,” Piper added. “The old saying is, grow or die.”