2017 Spencer Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Spencer, Iowa  2017  Comprehensive Plan

C HAPTER

6 .

C OMMUNITY

T RENDS

The City of Spencer, located in Clay County, is in many respects similar to other northwest Iowa and midwestern communities. Conversely, there are also many community attributes that make Spencer unique from any other northwest Iowa community. Being the county seat of Clay County brings challenges of growing the community as Clay County is one of many rural counties in Iowa facing population decline. Over the past several years, Spencer has experienced challenges, successes, issues and opportunities that affect population, housing and growth as explored in this next chapter. Growth, declines or shifts in a city’s population and housing play an important role in the planning process. Examining community trends such as population and housing statistics is fundamental in considering infrastructure needs for future development opportunities. Population and housing information is necessary when assessing the future needs of community facilities and projected growth of industrial, commercial, and residential land uses.

Photo of public art in Spencer’s Riverview Park

HISTORIC POPULATION TRENDS Since the turn of the century, much of the Midwest’s and Iowa’s rural population has been declining, largely as a result of technological advances in the agricultural industry allowing fewer people to farm the land with greater efficiency combined with cultural shifts of younger population bases to larger cities and metropolitan areas. For the most part, rural communities across northwest Iowa, including the City of Spencer, are not immune to these lasting trends as shifts in population from rural to urban areas continue to take their toll on Iowa’s rural population base. However, some communities such as Spencer, try diligently to position themselves to serve surrounding rural areas as a regional hub for retail, community services, healthcare, and retirement living needs of surrounding communities. Reviewing Spencer’s population trends from incorporation to present shows a picture of the historic growth and periods of declining population in the community. According to the table on the following page, Spencer grew at a consistent pace in its early years as a community. Between 1880 and 1900, Spencer grew from 824 to 3,095 residents in two decades. Likewise, the city’s population more than doubled from 3,095 to 7,446 residents over the next 50 years. Growth continued until 1980 when Spencer reached its peak population of 11,726 residents. By the following decade, Spencer experienced the beginning of a 40-year period of population stagnation. During the 1980s the city was hit with a 5.6% population decline equaling a loss of 660 residents. Spencer was not the only community in Iowa to experience population declines during the 1980s economic farm crisis. Between 1990 and 2000 Spencer’s population rebounded slightly by an increase of 2.2% or 251 new

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NW Iowa Planning & Development