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June 2002
Suburbanization of the Minnesota countryside
Traditional distinctions between urban and rural, metro and non-metro areas are fading fast in Minnesota as well as much of the Midwest, according to University researchers.
"Towns, villages, and hamlets within highway commuting ranges of regional job centers are becoming bedroom suburbs," Adams hypothesizes, "and incomes brought home from those jobs bring new vitality to Main Street."
What’s more, Professor John Adams and a team from the University’s Geography Department have concluded that Minnesota’s regional trade centers are showing the same low-density sprawl in recent years as the Twin Cities metro area. As part of the ongoing Transportation and Regional Growth study, Adams also identified "a crescent of growth" within the state, stretching from Fargo-Moorhead to Bemidji and Brainerd, through the Twin Cities, to Rochester and Mankato.
Adams presented his team’s latest findings May 22 at the research conference breakout session "Suburbanization of the Minnesota Countryside." Joining Adams were panelists Alan Forsberg of the Blue Earth County highway department, Nelrae Succio of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and Dixie Johnson, vice mayor of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Cecil Selness, also with Mn/DOT, moderated the panel discussion.
Adams’s team selected 20 of Minnesota’s 49 regional trade centers outside the greater Twin Cities area as representative samples to probe the relationship between land development and transportation, specifically how regional centers are evolving beyond their traditional role simply as distribution points for a rural economy. Places that have grown quickly typically are situated closer to prosperous and growing population centers, possess valuable resources, and have found ways to capitalize on scale efficiencies in production. Moreover, when growth is underway, the growth often fuels a shift of resources and value to the area.
"Once places gain the edge over their competitors, they flourish, while others reach a plateau and go no further while still others drop off the map," Adams writes. "As the map of economic opportunity slowly is transformed, residents relocate, and newcomers to the state-—immigrants and domestic migrants—settle in places that appear to offer promise and opportunity."
To assess the growth or decline of an area, the researchers identified the sample regional centers as "key cities" as well as nearby cities, towns, and townships within the commuting field of each key, and examined related population trends and commuting activity. For each minor civil division within each commuting field they tracked population changes over 30 years—from 1970 to 2000—and also they studied trunk highway access and traffic flows.
Though most of Minnesota’s 5 million inhabitants reside in the Twin Cities metro, Adams says it’s also important to study the state’s regional centers to get the most accurate picture of what is going on.
So far, Adams has found that the growth and decline of the state’s recreational and job centers don’t fit into traditional patterns. Moreover, there appears to be a slow aggregation of people into regional centers while, at the same time, people are spreading farther out from within those centers.
What is clear, however, is that Minnesotans don’t necessarily live or work in one place anymore, Adams said, so planning and development organizations need to adjust appropriately.
Ultimately, the TRG study may help improve Minnesota’s trunk-highway system, which has seen increased traffic loads in all of the sample areas. Some highways near fast-growing regional centers may even be approaching capacity, a fact that hasn’t escaped Mn/DOT planners.
"There is a lot of diversity across the state in what Mn/DOT
is responsible for," Succio said, pointing out the special
challenges of keeping Minnesota moving during lean times. "We
need to maintain the trunk-highway system to some degree of consistency."
Still, Mn/DOT’s main focus has fallen mainly on the development
of regional centers and corridors, or "travelsheds."
Succio further explained that Mn/DOT, committed to addressing
safety and mobility issues, is looking especially to partnerships
with other state and local agencies to meet their objectives.
Detroit Lakes, Johnson said, is an outstanding example of how a growing regional center can work with Mn/DOT to meet changing needs. Specifically, the city’s growth as a regional center has spurred a major upgrade of Highway 10, an "interregional corridor" which bisects the southeastern portion of town.
"The little vehicles are all lined up on the plan map and ready to go," she added. "The dump truck, however, is empty. We need to fill it with policy and resources, some of which requires legislative action on transportation dollars. Then, we can complete the project."