During the latest annexation of 715 acres, I heard more than one media outlet describe it as “the largest annexation since the city added Richwoods Township.” I wasn’t even born yet when Peoria annexed Richwoods Township, so that meant nothing to me, but I figured it must have been a big addition of land.”Big” doesn’t begin to describe it.
I spent some time at the library familiarizing myself with some annexation history tonight and was shocked at the size of the Richwoods annexation. It more than doubled the physical size of the city, expanding it from 15 square miles to 35 square miles. The additional land extended from just north of War Memorial Drive (south of Lake) all the way past Detweiller Park to Ravinswood Road to the north. It also added about 21,000 residents.
And it almost didn’t happen. The residents of the township had to vote for annexation, and pro-annexation voters won by only 336 votes. There was quite a bit of debate leading up to the big vote, which took place on November 21, 1964. Most of the arguments centered around the then separate Richwoods school district which did not want to join Peoria’s District 150. Proponents of annexation pointed out all the city services Richwoods would enjoy: storm sewers, water (provided by the Peoria Water Works Co.), buses, increased law enforcement, the replacement of volunteer firefighters with “city firemen” (lowering their fire insurance bills), garbage collection, street repair, street lights, etc., etc., etc. One of my favorite quotes was, “Speakers for annexation have told prospective voters to consider the long range view, that a bigger city could attract more industry by showing evidence of a growing, vibrant city.”
It’s growing, alright–but only in size. Check out these numbers:
| Year |
Square Miles |
Population |
| 1960 | 15 | 103,162 |
| 2006 | 49.26 | 112,936 |
The physical size of the city is over three times as large as it was 46 years ago, yet our population has increased only 9.5%. Is it any wonder that we’re having trouble balancing budgets? Why is our population stagnant despite the immense increase in land mass, strip malls, retail stores, etc.?
(One interesting side note: the city next tried to annex Peoria Heights in February 1965, but it was roundly defeated by voters there.)
I find it especially interesting that two school districts were merged as a result of the annexation. Clearly someone thought it would be a bad idea for a city to have two school districts. More recent annexations have resulted in Peoria having two school districts. I can’t help but feel in the long run this will be a very bad thing. One is richer, one is poorer. One is whiter, one is blacker. One is largely successful, one is struggling. We are a city divided with interests that are not shared.
City of Peoria actually has at least four school districts.
CJ, I think you atr spot on in your observations about anexation density dynamics. Molly Parker interviewed me a couple weeks ago regarding this latest annexation, but in as much as I don’t subsribe to the Urinal, I have no idea if the article ran, but I gave her a bunch of information regarding budgets pre and post Richwoods annexation as well as breakdowns of Capital, Debt Service, Staff distribution for the big three Departments as well as “other”(all other departments combined). It is an excel spreadsheet and if you are interested, I will try and email to you. It is a pretty big file and I am still on dialup.
CJ — you ask —- Why is our population stagnant despite the immense increase in land mass, strip malls, retail stores, etc.?
Because we do not have community engagement — the power grid is such that the movers and shakers think and act as if they have all the answers when in fact many citizens have a lot of creative and valuable input that is often ignored. We see some changes with recent elections and as Peoria moves to having authentic community engagement on a regular basis — Peoria would reverse the numbers and again begin to grow.