Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Eagan fastest growing metro city Tom Hedges - 8/20/1984Eagan fastest growing city in metropolitan area
By JEFF BURRILL
Speculation by city officials
that Eagan is the fastest growing
community in the state was rein-
forced by a report released
recently by the Metropolitan
Council. According to the report,
Eagan had the largest numerical
population increase in the
metropolitan area over the past
four years.
Population in the seven - county
metropolitan area grew by 3.6
percent between 1980 and 1984,
more than double the 1.5 percent
increase between 1976 and 1980.
In all, the area gained 71,000 peo-
ple, bringing the estimated
amount of people to 2,056,820 as of
April 1, 1984.
The Metropolitan Council also
estimated that Eagan's popula-
tion increased from 20,700 in 1980
TOM HEDGES
to 26,470 in 1984. City Ad-
ministrator Tom Hedges,
THIS WEEK
NEWSPAPERS
Volume 6, No. 25 August 20, 1984
Three Sections Section A
however, feels the Met Council's
estimates low.
"■■1TL...< <L., eR,.�..,.....1:�,.., n.,.._
cil and state do when figuring out
population estimates is take an-
average of how many vacancies
there are throughout the Twin
Cities per household unit,"
Hedges explained. "By using a
formula, they then average out
the.people living in the household
units. This is fine for most of the
metro area where there are
vacancies, but the truth is, in
Eagan the vacancy rate is almost
zero.
"According to builders and
renters here, most apartment
complexes have waiting lists,
while most houses are occupied
by young couples with children.
This is opposed to household units
in other metropolitan cities
where there are a lot of vacancies
or people living alone.
"I just don't think Eagan fits
the Mvt ('nnnril'c fnrmnla WP
feel we have over 30,000 residents
here."
It would be important for
Eagan's financial well -being if, in
fact, the city was given credit for
30,000 -plus residents.
"With more people, Eagan
would qualify for additional
federal revenue sharing and
municipal state aid," Hedges
continued. "We're going to ap-
peal for an adjustment, and after
further study, I'm also going to
propose to the city council that
we budget a city census for 1985.
A census would be fairly expen-
sive, but if we're right about the
size of Eagan's population, the
money we would receive in
EAGAN
federal funding would more than
cover the cost of the census."
Pnniib Linn arnwth in Faaan
and the entire Twin Cities area is
said to due to baby boomers star-
ting their own families, and there
is also an indication that the baby
boomers are moving to the
suburbs.
Dakota, Washington, Carver
and Anoka counties had popula-
tion increases of more than 7 per-
cent between 1980 and 1984, while
Hennepin and Ramsey counties
grew by only 1.8 percent.
Eagan and six other cities ac-
count for more than one half the
growth in the metropolitan area.
Besides Eagan, the other cities
are Brooklyn Park, Plymouth,
Maple Grove, Eden Prairie, Coon
Rapids and Blaine.
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