20,000 and counting

Germantown dealing nicely with vigorous growth

By JOHN TORINUS

January 31, 2007

Lots of facts and figures about Washington County were dished out at the annual meeting of the Germantown Chamber of Commerce last week, but the number that stood out most was 20,000.

That milestone was for the estimated population of the Village of Germantown. Actually, village officials believe it is north of that number.

"We’re really growing," said Village Administrator David Schornack.

There were 300 homes under construction in the village last summer.

For reference sake, the city of West Bend is pushing 30,000 residents and has the same kinds of numbers for open permits.

It is not improbable that Germantown will pass West Bend in a couple of decades. Its closer proximity to Milwaukee makes for a higher rate of growth.

In 1980, Germantown was at 10,500, meaning that it about doubled in 25 years.

The village also has been propelled by its aggressive promotion of large industrial parks. Businesses fleeing old, inefficient, multi-story factories have flocked to the outlying industrial parks.

Germantown still has plenty of open space with sewer, water and roads in place in its industrial park south of Mequon Road.

Its growth in tax base has matched its growth in residents. Current market value is $2.2 billion, up from $1.6 billion in 2002.

The industrial growth has kept village property tax rates in line. As all urban planners now concede, but many local officials still don’t get, residential development actually penalizes taxpayers.

Yes, workers need places to live, so housing is needed to match business growth. But, every subdivision pushes tax rates up. Roads, sewers, water, police and fire protection and, most importantly, schools all cost money, lots of money.

Just one kid in school costs more than $8,000 per year, well above the property taxes from an average house.

We all love kids, and we need young people in our population mix. Countries where the birth rate has plummeted, like Japan, Russia, Italy and Spain, are in deep trouble. They don’t have enough workers to support aging populations.

Not having kids is an indulgence our nation can’t afford. Without our heavy immigration, we might be getting too gray as a nation, too.

But, let’s be clear about it. Kids don’t come cheap. We need the business growth to pay for their education and well being.

Germantown has the appropriate mix of industrial and residential development. So do West Bend and Hartford.

On that note, we are running out of workers. Jack Caldwell, the county’s new economic development professional, made that case.

Caldwell, who left New Orleans after Katrina’s wreckage and calls himself "a Cajun cheesehead," cited the county’s low unemployment rate of 4 percent and high out-migration rate. An analysis shows 15,136 more workers leaving the county for jobs every day than coming in.

"We don’t have any workers," he said. "We have to go get them" inside and outside the county, he added.

Caldwell also urged a regional linkage in economic development. The new M7 regional council for economic development just landed a $6 million workforce training grant, and Washington County needs to get its share of that federal largesse.

The growth in Germantown carries another challenge, that of finding good water. Two of the village’s wells have had to be punched to deep sandstone formations at more than 1,200 feet.

At that depth, the wells run into small amounts of radium (not the gas radon). That has led the village to put a new filtration on line at a price tag of $1.5 million. Schornack said the water tests are "now well within limits."

That same issue, water of sufficient quality and quantity in the face of continuing development, resonates across the county.

All in all, hats off the Germantown for hitting the 20,000 mark, for dealing with the issues of growth in a balanced way, and for understanding that population growth comes with a price.

(John Torinus is CEO of Serigraph, Inc. in West Bend and a past general manager of the Daily News.)