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The contrast between traditional life in Livingston Parish and the suburban version that is overtaking it is clear. In Walker, the tract-home Meadow Lake subdivision carves out a swath of land along La. Highway 447 across the road from a rustic scene of corrugated-metal-roofed shacks and black-and-white cows grazing in the grass.

In the retail area closer to Interstate 12 to the south, an outsider might be forgiven for mistaking the surroundings as east Baton Rouge: A CVS-vs.-Walgreens intersection is there, along with fast-food joints telegraphing the direction of metro sprawl.

Elsewhere, in southern Denham Springs, more cookie-cutter homes spread along La. 16, nearly next door to Cowboy’s Tractor Repair [which also deals in golf carts]. Along La. 447 south of Walker, a nursing black dog trots unaccompanied across the highway, not far from a “cypress swings” shop and the site where South Fork Elementary is being built, a $7.4 million project that just got a boost from a federal stimulus bond.

A 1980s pop song croons “welcome to the boomtown;” taken alone, the title applies handily to the parish, which is transforming from a woodsy mobile-home capital into sprawling bedroom communities and shopping strips to serve those residents. It isn’t quite smart growth, but in this economy, most planners would be happy with the growth part.

That bygone hit song also warns of the dangers of quick and easy money, though, and the consumer bust that followed the burst banking bubble has slowed the rate of business investment in the region east of Baton Rouge.

Still, when 30,000 people move to a place in less than a decade, something is brewing. According to Parish President Mike Grimmer, fortuitous infrastructure planning is to thank for the rise of retail, although the population growth has come with a balkanized sewage system.

Grimmer, the former mayor of Walker for 33 years, says he recalls discussing around 1980 how to turn two-lane Walker Road into a five-lane expanse with new water and sewer systems, gas lines, fire hydrants and more, which came online about 2002. “That infrastructure has just grown business after business. And that’s what it takes,” he says. “Stine Lumber just moved in. They have [12] stores in the state. This one’s already moved up to No. 2.”

Building Official Rick Foster reports that compared with a year ago, when he took his current gig just as Hurricane Gustav blew in from the Gulf of Mexico, development has slackened, although he has a litany of projects in the pipeline to monitor.

“Based on the number of permits that we issue and the inspections we do and the fees we collect, we are down,” he says. “I’d like to say that we’re starting to see us catch up a bit.” Through August, he says permit fees were off more than 57% compared with the same period last year, from about $43,000 down to $19,000.

In the proposal or approval process are hotels, including a Fairfield Inn that Foster says the Marriott chain would like to build on part of a 5-acre property off Rushing Road. Further along is a two-story Travel Inn being built next to the Home Depot off South Range Avenue; a Candlewood Suites could be finished by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Foster says Sam’s Club is looking to come in this year next to Bass Pro Shops; so far, the city has civil-engineering drawings of the project.

Alan Earnest, local general manager for Bass Pro Shops, says his store and restaurant complex is exceeding expectations since opening in February 2008. “We’re beating last year’s numbers, and we’re beating our own plan numbers that we set forth for this fiscal year,” he says, noting that Bass Pro expects to hire 100 workers for the holiday season on top of the 350 to 400 who regularly work there. Of the Sam’s Club, he says: “I think that’ll be a bonus to us. That will bring more traffic.”

Nearby, restaurants are installing themselves in the Amite Crossing strip mall, where a beef jerky emporium was the pioneer tenant. A jambalaya shop has moved in, and a sushi restaurant and a Mexican eatery soon will open, while plans have been OK’d for a neighboring Anytime Fitness, conveniently close to Hooters’ chicken wings and beer and Bass Pro’s fudge shop.

To the south of that landmark development, a Walgreens is arising at South Range and Vincent Road by the Plantation Estates subdivision.

Brandon Ellzey, chief of staff for the parish, says fiscal streamlining is a part of the growth process. Instead of renting space, the local office of motor vehicles and the parish council will share part of a two-story structure going up off South Frost Road.

“The council said, ‘We’re just wasting our money, let’s get our own building,’” he says. “We’re going to look at other agencies that are paying rent in terms of bringing them in.”

In terms of housing, nowhere else in the state has seen quite a boom like Livingston Parish in the last decade. After Hurricane Katrina, many folks fled heavily damaged St. Bernard Parish for a new start upland. “Literally 30 and 40 families moved side by side into our subdivisions,” Grimmer says.

Have things slowed in the recession? “Our housebuilding permits have dropped,” Grimmer says. “We were kind of leading the pack on new homes and people moving into the parish.”

There’s plenty of catch-up to play, though. He says the parish just got under way with a five-year master plan that will focus on integrating wastewater infrastructure that so far has been done piecemeal with disparate residential projects.

At the Satsuma exit off I-12, he says the parish will finally get a real taste of that “smart growth,” including the Creekstone Commons homes being tucked next to the interchange with adjoining retail that so far offers only an Ashley Reneé Bridal Boutique.

The Suma Crossing development will be keyed to the North Oaks Health System complex, he says, noting that a hotel and condos are planned at three of the four quadrants of the interchange, while the brown-colored girders of the medical building being built occupy the other corner.

Yet Juban Crossing, a 1,000-home, mixed-use development planned off Juban Road and I-12 that hit a recessionary road bump, remains on hold after being slated to break ground two years ago. Grimmer says he plans to talk with developer Stephen Keller this month about its promise of a place where people can “work and play and eat and have their services be in one location.”

Keeping things local is a tricky matter to cohere. Grimmer says 78% of Livingston’s residents head out of the parish to work, be it to Baton Rouge or the Gonzales area for petrochemical work, or elsewhere. While he says new tenants might be in the offing for the Livingston Parish Industrial Park, where The Shaw Group is based, he can’t say yet; possibly an announcement could come in the next six months. And there is talk of a regional airport somewhere, someday.

“We’re looking forward to the economy making a turnaround,” he says.

AT A GLANCE: Livingston Parish

Population [2008] 120,256

Population growth [2007-08] 3.3%

Median household income [2007] $53,259

Persons below poverty [2007] 10.8%

Private nonfarm employment [2006] 15,386

Largest employer Walmart [900]

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; Baton Rouge Area Chamber