When I have been out talking to my neighbors, I have heard various versions of the same questions: why don’t we have more retail, dining options, or chains like Panera or Chipotle? How can we attract more commercial development and businesses to locate in the village?
The answer is both simple and important for our community’s future: businesses follow people, not the other way around.
Retail Follows Rooftops
In commercial real estate, there is a well-established principle that “retail follows rooftops.” CBRE, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms, confirms this principle holds true even in today’s economy: “When people move, businesses follow—and suburban retail is where much of that movement occurs.”¹
This is not just industry wisdom. Academic research published in Nature found that population density serves as a “precondition for development,” creating local demand that attracts service businesses. These businesses then provide the economic base and amenities that attract larger, more innovative employers.² In other words, growth builds on itself in stages.
The Connection Goes Beyond Retail
The same principle applies to office and corporate locations. The Site Selection Group, a leading corporate location advisory firm, notes that “quality of life factors such as housing affordability, educational institutions, healthcare facilities and recreational opportunities can significantly impact employee satisfaction and retention. Locations that offer a high quality of life can be more attractive to potential employees and can help a company attract and retain top talent.”³
The Federal Highway Administration puts it even more directly: commercial offices “succeed or fail based on their access to workers.”⁴ Companies evaluate where their employees live and how easily they can commute before deciding where to locate.
What This Means for the Village of Cottage Grove
With an estimated population of 9,345, Cottage Grove is approaching the population thresholds where regional and national businesses start paying serious attention.⁵ But we are not quite there yet.
The question facing our village is not whether we should grow. We have already grown significantly. The question is whether we finish what we started and reach the population levels that attract the commercial development our residents want, or whether we stall out and remain a bedroom community where residents drive elsewhere for dining, shopping, and services while shouldering the entire tax burden through residential and limited commercial property taxes.
Strategic residential growth is not development for development’s sake. It is the path to the restaurants, retailers, and employers that will diversify our tax base and reduce the burden on existing homeowners.
That is why smart growth matters. That is why I am running for Village Trustee.
¹ CBRE, “Income Matters for Retail Development but So Does Density”
² Nature, “Population density as the attractor of business to the place” (2024)
³ Site Selection Group, “10 Critical Factors to Consider During Corporate Site Selection” (2024)
⁴ Federal Highway Administration, “Fact Sheet: Industry-specific Site Selection Factors”
⁵ Village of Cottage Grove, “About Us”
JP for Cottage Grove 