"Elbow-roomers" make small towns like St. Francis swell

Darlene Prois, Star Tribune

Published January 11, 2004 STFR11 in the Star Tribune

Lance Jensen wants his sons to experience the freedoms he knew as a kid growing up in Andover.

He wants them to spend summer afternoons in a tree fort, fall mornings hunting grouse and pheasants, bright winter days snowmobiling, all from the family back yard.

But Andover has matured over two decades. Snowmobiling within the city limits is no longer allowed, and land costs have soared. So four years ago, when the time came to start his own family, Jensen moved a dozen miles north, to St. Francis, where land was cheap and restrictions were few.

In the ensuing years, however, the once-sleepy town of St. Francis has awakened and is growing at a tremendous clip. Now it too has banned snowmobiles from city streets.

In Minnesota and across the nation, families like the Jensens are spreading outward from big cities and adjoining suburbs, seeking homes where there are trees and open space, but the pleasures of city life remain within reach.

"That's the American ideal," said state demographer Tom Gillaspy. "In Minnesota, you can find it, live it."

Tiny towns once on the fringe of the metro area -- St. Francis, St. Michael, Big Lake, Otsego, Rogers -- are now among the state's fastest-growing communities, their populations swollen by people like the Jensens.

"I call them the 'elbow-roomers,' " said John Fraser Hart, a University of Minnesota geography professor who specializes in rural America. "They're people who grew up at the edge of the city and had space and now they're beginning to feel cramped. They want elbow room. Basically, that's the pattern we've had since 1950. It's a natural process, and I can't think of anything capable of stopping it."

Growing pains

Growing pains are also part of the process. The concerns Jensen had about Andover he's now starting to have about St. Francis.

"It's unfortunate," said Jensen, 29, of recent actions such as the snowmobile ban. "I moved here because I wanted some land in a nice little neighborhood where we could snowmobile out of our yard. That's a big thing. If I have to put it on a trailer, I might as well go to Wyoming."

But Jensen, a gas hauler, and wife, Jennifer, an insurance underwriter, are in St. Francis for the long haul. They say it's worth the 52-mile daily commutes and 60-hour work weeks to live in a place where so many share their values.

Surrounded by sand plains and hardwood forest and miles from the nearest interstate, St. Francis still grows and grows. For the past 40 years, the population of this northern Anoka County town has doubled every 10 years, and current growth has it on track to double again by 2010. It's the state's seventh-fastest-growing community. Now, with a population of 6,300 and still growing, the city is struggling some to keep its small-town charm while meeting the needs of its residents.

It can be a fine and difficult balance.

Small-town feel

With its residents' median age only 27.9, St. Francis is also one of the youngest communities in the state. Drawn by affordable land prices, relatively low construction costs and good schools, young people are coming from closer-in suburbs or simply staying put in their hometown.

"We're young, but set in our ways," Jensen said. "Everybody supports each other here. We all know you got to work hard to support the babies, but you have to have a good time, too."

For people in St. Francis, good times usually revolve around families and outdoor activities. Community celebrations like Pioneer Days and Oktoberfest draw large crowds. In winter, the main indoor entertainments are a bowling alley and the Holen brothers' hardware store.

"There's nothing like our local hardware store," said city planner Steve Bjork. "That's about our only tourist attraction. They have stuff hanging and stuff in the aisles. It's what your grandpa used to go to."

The growing population means growing businesses, too. While there's no competition on the horizon for the hardware store, business is strong at the big new grocery store and the new McDonald's out on Hwy. 47. Construction will begin in spring on a sports bar/restaurant and an upscale coffee shop. For most St. Francis residents, a trip to the big city means a 13-mile drive into Coon Rapids, not Minneapolis or St. Paul.

"I think what we primarily see moving here are people who are getting sick of the big city," said Bjork. "There's nothing wrong with Coon Rapids, but they just don't want the hustle and bustle anymore."

Some, like 25-year-old Amy Borgeson, cofounder of the city's new Chamber of Commerce, never wanted the hustle and bustle at all.

"It doesn't appeal to me, the big city," Borgeson said. She's worked at the local bank since graduating from St. Francis High School in 1997. Two years ago, she bought a two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse between the eighth and ninth holes of one of the city's latest amenities, a 27-hole golf course that St. Francis shares with Oak Grove Township.

"I love living out here," she said. "The river, the trees, the golf course. It's not the big-city feel like Coon Rapids or Blaine, where all the stuff is so commercial. When you come here, it's much more beautiful."

It's not only the young who are drawn to St. Francis. Empty-nesters are moving there, too, trading big suburban houses for smaller townhomes or manufactured houses in one of the city's large new developments.

"They're trying to get a little bit closer to the cabin up north," Bjork said. "For someone from Eden Prairie, it's an hour drive they're saving. I think we're going to see a lot more of that when the baby-boomers get closer to retirement."

Randy Dressen, a baby-boomer himself, agrees with Bjork. As a member of the St. Francis City Council for the past three years, he's well aware of the challenges posed by the area's rapid growth. He and his wife, Mary, moved to St. Francis in 1987, searching for small-town America after years of living in Dallas, St. Louis and Atlanta.

Dressen thinks the growth will taper off, but the city is prepared for years to come, he said. It recently upgraded its waste-water plant and built a new water tower to keep up with development.

Of course there are other concerns, too, small and big. The new McDonald's, while popular with the young set, doesn't satisfy community hunger for a Dairy Queen. Local police successfully confronted a gang problem a few years ago, Dressen said, and they recently added a canine unit for drug detection in the schools.

"They're not finding anything," Dressen said. "So that's a good thing."

Darlene Prois is at dprois@startribune.com.



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