To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Kristin Zagurski, Assistant Town Manager
Title
Results of 2019 Community Survey
Body
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Executive Summary
The Town’s 2019 Major Projects Work Program calls for a community survey to be completed this year. To help accomplish that project, the Town retained the firm Northwest Research Group. Survey topics and questions were presented to Town Council for feedback in January before Northwest conducted the statistically valid survey between February 19 and March 18.
Results overall were favorable, with the Town receiving a 3.5-Star Rating overall in Northwest’s 5-Star Rating system; this is the same rating received in the 2017 community survey. 588 residents completed the survey, for an overall statistical confidence of plus or minus 3.9 percent. A survey of Town’s 2,079 business license holders also was completed, with 234 respondents, for a margin of error of plus or minus 6.0 percent.
Northwest Project Director Nathan Wiggin will go over the findings and entertain questions from Council regarding the data at the April 16 Council meeting. A preliminary report on the survey is in Attachment A. Data from the business survey will be added to the report before it is finalized and posted to CRgov.com/2019survey by the end of April.
An open survey was conducted subsequent to the scientific survey. Ratings in that survey did not vary significantly from the scientific study. Those ratings, along with the open-ended comments submitted through the open survey, can be found in Appendix III of the attached report.
Discussion
Resident Survey Results
The resident survey generally took respondents about 32 minutes to complete and included questions in the following broad areas, under which results are summarized:
• General questions about the quality of life and quality and value of services in Town and a question regarding whether the Town is headed in the right direction
Nearly all residents surveyed say the quality of life in Castle Rock meets or exceeds expectations, though there has been some shifting away from “Greatly Exceeds.” Nine out of 10 residents say the quality of services the Town provides exceeds or greatly exceeds expectations; this rating has remained the same since 2015. Further, Castle Rock continues to shine with regard to comparability to other communities, with 92 percent of residents surveyed believing Castle Rock is a better place to live than elsewhere.
Like in the past two surveys, opinions continue to be mixed with regard to the direction the Town is headed. Just over half of residents surveyed believe the Town is headed in the right direction, and one-third said the Town is headed in the wrong direction. Based on analysis of open-ended survey responses, the latter sentiment most likely remains related to the Town’s growth.
Sixty-nine percent of residents surveyed believe they are getting their money’s worth for their tax dollars. While this represents a decline from 2015, Castle Rock still fares well in this area when compared to national benchmarks, and the results are comparable to other 3.5-Star communities.
• Thoughts regarding the Town’s strategic priorities
Residents indicate belief that all six Town strategic priorities are leading the Town in the right direction, with scores ranging from 8.16 to about 6 on an 11-point scale, where 10 indicates heading strongly in the right direction. The priorities with the strongest support are ensuring outstanding public safety, maintaining strong parks and recreation, securing our water future and managing the Town’s finances conservatively.
• Questions regarding Castle Rock as a place to live, including about important issues in and aspects of the Town, as well as regarding how well the Town keeps residents informed and how likely residents are to recommend Castle Rock as a place to raise children, do business, retire and work
Residents provide above-average ratings regarding most aspects of living in Castle Rock, with the ability to buy things locally rated highest among these attributes. Other attributes saw declines from either 2017 or 2015 and should be monitored.
Respondents identified the pace of growth and traffic congestion as the biggest issues facing Castle Rock when asked an open-ended question about that topic. Concerns about overcrowding and ensuring growth occurs smartly and takes into account future infrastructure needs also topped this list of concerns.
Scores related to keeping residents informed regarding Town happenings and seeking their involvement and input both have improved from 2017 and continue to fare well when compared to benchmarks.
Residents are very likely to recommend the Town as a place to raise children and rate the Town as above average, though not excellent, as a place to do business, retire and work.
• Thoughts regarding special topics
New in 2019, residents were asked for their opinion regarding the Town’s grocery tax. The majority of residents surveyed (57 percent) said they support keeping the grocery tax as-is. Another 23 percent wanted to keep the tax and offer a rebate for low-income residents. The remaining residents preferred a phase-out option - replacing the revenue with other taxes (11 percent); reducing services (6 percent); or replacing the revenue with property tax (4 percent).
Like in 2017, residents were asked whether they support or oppose the Town investing in public transportation services in Castle Rock. 56 percent of residents either support or strongly support such investment, with 27 percent opposed, and the remaining 17 percent neutral. This is a decline in support from 2017. With regard to funding such a service, it was assumed that those opposed to transit would not support paying an additional tax for such a system. This indicates that 57 percent of respondents are opposed to paying a new tax for public transportation, while 35 percent would support a new tax, with the remaining 8 percent neutral.
Respondents also were asked whether they would support a lodging tax, and 75 percent of residents say they would support one - an increase from 2017. It is important to note that this survey reflects sentiments among all residents and not among those residents likely to vote, should an election occur on any of these topics.
• Evaluations of specific aspects of Town services including Police, Fire/EMS, Roads/Public Works, Water and Parks and Recreation
Respondents who had interacted with the Police and Fire departments indicate they remain highly satisfied with nearly all aspects of their services.
Ratings for most mobility-related aspects had improved in 2017, and those improvements carried over into 2019. Specifically, the overall convenience and accessibility of roads and the overall condition of the road surface have improved since 2015.
Residents continue to be satisfied with Castle Rock Water’s services, though ratings surrounding the overall quality of water decreased for 2019. This is an area for further exploration.
Finally, residents indicated Parks and Recreation-related preferences, with a preference expressed for continued development of neighborhood parks rather than shifting additional resources toward creating a third indoor recreation facility.
Next Steps
As key as the survey results are the actions they ignite. Following the 2017 community survey, an online focus group was convened to further explore several key areas from that survey: value of services; growth; community character; parks priorities; and water planning. Staff identified concrete responses to undertake related to each issue.
With regard to value of services, the online community said it would like to see more transparency regarding how tax dollars are being spent. In the 2019 survey, one of the ratings that improved over 2017 was transparency regarding Town business on the website, which increased to 6.92 from 6.28.
To help ensure infrastructure keeps pace with growth, as the online community requested, Town Council adopted increases to the Town’s development-related fees. Further, construction is underway on the Town’s first new neighborhood park since 2012.
Finally, staff initiated simplified communications surrounding the Town’s water plans, including creating a “Most Hydrated Man” video series. Ratings regarding the Town’s efforts to keep residents informed regarding water services and projects improved from 6.59 in 2017 to 7.33 in 2019.
These outcomes demonstrate some of the ways the Town can use these survey results to spur positive changes to improve the quality of our community services. Staff encourages Council to discuss the 2019 survey results. Staff is continuing its review of this document and plans to provide recommendations on Town priorities and future budget responses later this spring and summer.
Attachment
Attachment A: 2019 Castle Rock Community Survey Preliminary Report