A failed referendum and continued development within the city has prompted the DeKalb Plan Commission to find logical, cost-effective methods to encourage reasonable residential growth, while continuing to attract profitable commercial and industrial growth.

The job of the plan commission has become more critical within a city that has seemed to show a majority of disapproval toward providing schools with additional money, installing new subdivisions/businesses and an overall fundamental desire to grow.

But Community Development Director Paul Rasmussen said people have a misconception that DeKalb has grown considerably during the past decade.

“I’d like to stress that we are a very slow-growing community,” Rasmussen said.

From 1990 to 2000, DeKalb saw an 11.7 percent increase in terms of population, whereas Oswego witnessed a 250 percent growth rate. Rasmussen said in order to maintain the city’s health, most notably within its currently weakened budget, the plan commission must look for ways to draw revenue to the city.

The focus, Rasmussen said, may rest on industrial growth that currently is only 7 percent of DeKalb’s equalized asset values. He said during the next eight-plus years, he’d like to see it increase to about 15 percent.

One such developmental site would be a 450-acre industrial plot of land near Seventh Street and Peace Road that has been the center of much interest recently from outside industrial bidders, Rasmussen said.

The attractiveness of this land is its proximity within the city and its ability to provide rail access if needed. Rasmussen said this industrial space is unique in that the utility broker was changed soon after the land saw little activity, and now it sees a groundswell of possibilities for DeKalb in the coming years.

Rasmussen urges residents to realize that without residential growth in the near future, it will be impossible to attract outside commercial and industrial businesses.

“You can’t attract stores unless you have people,” Rasmussen said.

He said community development greatly takes into account the impact of new subdivisions and businesses on the school district. He maintained that if the city has seen just more than a 1 percent increase in growth on average during the past decade, then it is within the limits the school board proposed at the Growth Summit to maintain the yearly growth rate of less than 2 percent.

Rasmussen encourages residents to realize that growth attracts businesses and therefore could alleviate tax burdens to single-family homes. Similar to what District 428 Superintendent Brian Ali said about what effect strengthening the school system could have on attracting businesses and lowering taxes is the same philosophy Rasmussen said he holds when looking to further encourage reasonable growth in DeKalb.