More People: The Great Annexation War of South Bend and Her Suburbs

[M II A II R II K]

More People: The Great Annexation War of South Bend and Her Suburbs


September 30, 2020

By Joe Molnar

Read More: https://westsb.com/features/morepeople-five

How is a city supposed to grow? A war was waged over this question in the early 1990s. Not a war with guns or cannons, but with speeches, articles, court cases, and state enforced laws. Though no lives were lost, hundreds of thousands of lives were changed by the outcome. This war tore St. Joseph County into roughly two camps. The first is represented by the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka. The second by residents who resided in unincorporated land in St. Joseph County, county government officials, and Indiana State Representatives and Senators. The war was the culmination of a decades long struggle between the City of South Bend and its hinterlands. For five decades, beginning in the 1940s, the area surrounding South Bend – and to a lesser extent Mishawaka – began to develop at urban densities, but actively fought efforts to be annexed into either city limits. South Bend attempted large scale annexations throughout the 1960s and 70s, but these were defeated, usually in court, at the behest of county residents.

- By the early 1990s, the city was facing a crossroads as the city population continued to decline and the number of households barely inched upwards. South Bend shrank while its suburbs boomed. These new suburbs would not exist without the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka. The cities provided jobs, medical care, the airport, zoo, retail districts, factories and warehouses, public spaces and parks, and restaurants amenities available to all residents regardless of where they lived. Without these amenities and the wealth generated, newly developed subdivisions outside of the cities would not have existed. However, unincorporated suburbs refused to join with the city that they depended on for their survival. — hile South Bend began its half-century long population decline, the entirety of St. Joseph County continued to gain residents. South Bend’s decline was not the result of the region losing people, but specific movement of populations within the region. Most of this growth happened in unincorporated St. Joseph County. The growth of a metro area while its primary city stagnates or declines is an unprecedented outcome now taken for granted. South Bend knew it had a problem on its hands. — With this dilemma in mind, Mayor Joseph Kernan in late 1989 established the Mayor’s Housing Forum in an effort to identify the ways the city could bolster the housing stock in the city for low- and moderate-income residents.¹ The Forum made four recommendations to the Mayor, the most substantial and controversial being that the city should begin an aggressive and massive annexation effort to make land available for new housing and to lessen property tax burdens on current residents.

- From this recommendation came the Annexation Policy and Plan for City of South Bend. This plan recommended large-scale annexations which, if all enacted, would have doubled the size of the city, and would have included the annexations of most of Clay Township, the University of Notre Dame, and Saint Mary’s College. This was the spark which began the war. The city began to fight back against decades of wealth leaving the city for land just outside its borders. The war between the city and its hinterlands eventually found its way to the Indiana Statehouse, which implemented a legally dubious law limiting annexations for cities within St. Joseph County at the behest of representatives of South Bend’s premier suburb Granger. This law did not apply to any other counties in the state. — When South Bend was first platted in the early 1830s, the development pattern reflected the country as a whole. At the time the United States was 91% rural and 9% urban. Dotted across the country – although more substantial in the Northeast – small cities popped up. Dense urban spaces were surrounded by rural countryside immediately beyond the city borders. As cities grew in population and economic activity, they grew outwards and slowly acquired more land. When annexations of land occurred adjacent to the city boundaries, the farmland would be subdivided into city plots and connected to the existing infrastructure network. — This growth aided rural residents in the countryside as it provided a larger marketplace to sell wares and farm goods, while providing the city a larger area to grow. There were no suburbs during these years – although the largest metropolises like New York City started to see “Railroad Suburbs” spring up during the middle of the 19th century. People were either in the city limits or were rural residents most likely tied to an agriculture-centered profession.

- As South Bend – and to a lesser extent Mishawaka – grew in the second half of the 19th century, the remaining population of St. Joseph County remained essentially flat. From 1860 to 1920, the population outside of the city limits rose from 13,135 to 17,126, or about 30%. In comparison, South Bend’s population went from 3,832 to 70,983, or a gain of 1,852%, in the same time frame. South Bend grew from just over 11% of St. Joseph County’s population to nearly 69%. — South Bend’s outward growth came from two different types of annexations. The first was annexation of farmland or vacant fields with the owner’s eager acceptance. The majority of annexations were of this type, and many times, these lands were owned by prominent citizens of South Bend. — Annexation was once a simple process: South Bend’s Common Council would pass an ordinance adjusting the city boundary lines to include the desired territory, and once the mayor signed the ordinance, the new boundaries were established. Per Indiana law, by the 1950s the city would have had to demonstrate how it would provide city services to the annexed area within a reasonable time frame. This process gave South Bend the ability to grow incrementally outward as the urban population rose. The residents and owners of the annexed area could sue the city if they believed the city could not provide adequate services. — Despite the common narrative, South Bend continued to grow after the 1960s. The problem is the political imaginary lines which we use to determine what is and is not South Bend failed to keep up with the physical growth on the ground. This failure came from a concerted effort by those who left South Bend for greener pasture just outside the city and who were determined to keep it that way.

What were some incentives for developers to subdivide and build housing without annexing into the city limits? Below are a few examples:

• St. Joseph County soil is generally suitable for private well and septic systems.

• Indiana state law governing well and septic systems had few difficult standards to meet.

• Developing subdivisions in the county was cheaper. No need for sidewalks, street lights, sewer, and water lines or fire hydrants. All savings that could be split between the developer and the future homeowners.

• No county-wide growth management plan was ever developed. Such a plan may have recognized the costs of haphazard land development.

• Property taxes were cheaper by a factor of 2 or 3 in the county and the same house built in the county was cheaper to own than in the city. Developers used this as an incentive not to annex their subdivisions.

• The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) would only insure mortgages if the subdivisions were guaranteed to be segregated. This was easier to accomplish in the county than the city where neighborhoods were more integrated.

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The imaginary line which separates South Bend on the right and unincorporated residents in Centre Township on the left. Is one really South Bend and the other not?