Citizen Surveys: Taking Your Community's Pulse
by Thomas I. Miller
A growing number of communities are augmenting traditional meetings and forums with citizen surveys. Respected surveyor Thomas I. Miller provides an introduction to the art and science of developing and using surveys.
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From PCJ #35, Summer 1999
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No planning department worth its salt creates or significantly alters a master plan, design guidelines, or zoning without input from the community. Numerous opportunities for input are often provided: forums held in every neighborhood; well-publicized community-wide meetings; call-in radio or cable shows; newspaper clip-outs.
In many communities, it is not uncommon to find the same relatively small group of people attending each of the forums, traveling from place to place like a progressive dinner feeding on the soup of local politics. A town meeting about a re-zoning that finds 100 in attendance out of 100,000 in the community nevertheless makes everyone feel terrific because "there was such enthusiasm shown by participants" or "the vision of residents was clearly expressed in fifteen breakout groups" or "a wide cross-section of our community came to listen and speak."
Despite the public back patting for having done so well in the citizen input arena, many elected officials and board members are nagged by self-doubt about the real success of their "citizen involvement" efforts. Although they have cast their net widely, providing genuine and sincere opportunities for citizen participation, they know that the citizens who are most often snagged into participating are those with the greatest passion, the most time, the least reserve, and the most at stake. They wonder if the viewpoints of families with children; wage-earners steeped in the daily pressures of making ends meet; and sick or handicapped residents were adequately considered.
The Merits of Citizen Surveys
A growing number of communities are augmenting traditional meetings and forums with citizen surveys. Surveys are far more successful in capturing the typical community resident and making that resident's opinion part of the community calculus.
A scientifically conducted survey of residents brings in the voice of the public like no forum, newspaper straw poll, or focused discussion. Whether conducted by phone or mail, a good citizen survey will provide the perspective of residents who are not the "usual suspects." Our research demonstrates that 80 to 85 percent of survey respondents report not having attended any community meeting or watched a council meeting on television in the prior twelve months.
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