But the expansion has moved east in earnest. Deerfield's housing starts last year dropped close to 1995 levels, while the growth in Hamilton Township can only be called torrid. Now we're still part of the crowd. The township is on pace for at least 750 new homes this year, based on the first three months and the traditional summer upswing in construction. That would be 2,100 new residents this year for an area that's now home to 9,630.
People can get more home for the money the further out they go.
Regardless of the causes, the effects remain the same. The transformation of countryside into suburbia begins with bulldozers gouging holes for foundations in former cow pastures. It culminates in more children in the schools, more cars on the roads and fewer farmers on the land. Former state Rep. George Terwilleger, Hamilton Township born and raised, admits to being a little sentimental about seeing the bulldozers pull in. I've walked a lot of miles in those fields doing bird hunting.