School of Planning, Design and Construction Urban Collaborators

St. Johns is the largest city in Clinton County and serves as the county seat. It is known as the “Mint City” due to the local environmental conditions granting the ability to grow mint in abundance. The community has found identity in hard work and its roots in farming. This history of farming and mint export has left its mark on the town, including on the Gateway project site. 

The Gateway is a site consisting of several parcels of land situated north of the downtown area. The site contains five grain silos, four historic train cars, and a railroad track which has been converted into a bike path that connects seven communities over 41.3 miles of trail. The goals of this project aim to introduce strategies focusing on land repurposing and economic development on the project site to improve the St. Johns community.

Demographics help provide basic, but much-needed information for a planner when assessing a community. St. Johns has kept a stable population from 2000 to 2020, fluctuating between 7,458 and 7,865 people living in the city. The city experienced a drop in educational attainment rate from 28.6% in 2010 to 19.8% in 2015, it has since climbed slightly, up to 23.7% in 2022. St. Johns income showed that they had a 9.3% rate of change from 2010 to 2022, starting at a median household income of $57,905 in 2010 and increasing to $63,313 in 2022. 

Unemployment in St. Johns has had a significant bounce back from the 2008 depression, dropping from 10.37% in 2010 to 2.47% in 2022, producing an unemployment rate lower than both the state (4.65% in 2022) and the county (3.18% in 2022). 

St. Johns is a housing market dominated by owner-occupied residences, with a rate of 71.3% from 2018 to 2022. This signifies that the community has quality homeowner stability, this indicates that St. Johns is more of a traditional housing market, as well as a need to diversify their housing options. St. Johns’ total crime index is at 79, which is two points behind the state average of 81. 

Conducted a shift-share analysis that allows for an analysis of the change in employment compared to the national average. Clinton County has a net percent change in employment of 6.65% from 2018 to 2022, which is greater than the national growth rate of 6.07%. Clinton County achieved the spot of the third-highest employment growth in Michigan during this period as well.

There are quite a few challenges and threats facing this project, though none that are detrimental to the project site or to the economic wellness of the city. The first and foremost challenge is the grain silos taking up the west end of the project site. The silos take up thousands of square feet but are extremely costly to remove. Other challenges include a stormwater pipe running North-South through the middle of the project site, as well as an aging population in the city.

The recommendations of this report are reflected by four goals: enhancing the gateway, community involvement, encouraging patronage and tourism, and preserving history. First, the Practicum team created a survey for the residents of St. Johns. After collecting community input, recommendations were devised.

The first set of recommendations focuses on the grain silos, which have not been in use for several years. Ideas for short-term upkeep include cleaning and surface image changes, specifically painting the silos with colors or murals. While the long-term, higher-cost recommendations encourage demolishing the silos. 

The train depot serves as a public-use venue. The survey results indicated that 72% of residents want the train depot to remain as it is. Therefore, the Practicum team recommends it to remain for public use. However, if St. Johns would like to repurpose it into a private use, case studies are provided as examples. Regarding the train cars, St. Johns should remove all but one. If the train depot is repurposed, the train car may serve as an attachment to it.

Strengthened connectivity and wayfinding are strongly suggested for St. Johns. The survey has 63 responses for those wanting more parking in Downtown St. Johns. However, this seeming lack of parking may be a lack of knowledge of available public parking. Increased signage can provide better promotion of parking near the Gateway site. 

Mixed-use development should account for a great portion of new development on the Gateway site. Mixed-use structures will provide higher-density housing and more units for restaurants and local businesses.

The Practicum team recommends four social events and activities to increase patronage and community gathering in the downtown area. The first is an elevated farmers market. St. Johns can improve its farmers market by moving its location to the Gateway site, increasing its marketing, and changing its date to not conflict with competing farmers markets. The second recommendation is to host food truck events in the summer months. Next, St. Johns can implement live music events in the outdoor areas or inside restaurants in the downtown area. Lastly, a social district, which is a designated, outdoor alcoholic drinking area, will provide entertainment and a lively environment.