Attitudes on Development

From Wayne Senville, Editor, Planning Commissioners Journal:

What do Americans think of development in their communities? That was the focus of a nationwide survey of 1,000 Americans conducted this past Fall by the Saint Consulting Group (for more on what this consulting firm does, as posted on their web site).

According to the Saint Group, it's "the first [survey] of its kind to quantify and track the politics of land use, spotlighting who actively opposes and supports real estate-related projects and why."

But perhaps the most revealing finding of the survey (referred to as "the Saint Index") was the strong level of interest residents have in local land use issues. One of the first questions in the survey was:

"When considering candidates for county and local office, how important is their position on new development and growth?"

The responses:

• Very Important ........... 54.7%
• Somewhat Important .... 34.2%
• Not Very Important ......  7.0%
• Not Important at all......  2.4%
• Don't Know ................. 1.6%

The survey asked individuals to rate their level of support or opposition to a range of hypothetical projects. Here's the way these questions were worded:

"I am going to name some real estate projects. Please tell me how you would feel if each project was proposed in your community ... Single family homes / Apartment buildings or Condos / Office building / Grocery store / Large shopping plaza or mall / Landfill / ... " [and several other possible land uses].

The responses, perhaps not surprisingly to planners, showed relatively low levels of support for most of the uses listed. While only 14% of those surveyed indicated they'd oppose or strongly oppose single-family homes; the level of opposition increased to 29% for grocery stores; 43% for office building; 44% for apartments/condos; 58% for large shopping plaza/mall; and (not surprisingly) 76% for a landfill.

For fans (or opponents) of Wal-Mart, the survey also asked about support/opposition if a Wal-Mart were proposed: 19% strongly opposed; 42% opposed; 28% support; 8% strongly support; 3% don't know.

Obviously, the survey is asking very generalized questions, without any site-specific details, but it still does confirm what planners in many communities have long recognized, there's a lot of concern about almost anything other than single-family homes (and even those often run into considerable opposition).

The survey also included one other interesting question: "Do you think that local planning and zoning regulations in your community are too strict, about right, or not strict enough?" The responses: 13% too strict; 49% about right; 31% not strict enough; and 7% don't know.

The survey appeared to reflect a balance of political views among those responding. In response to a question about political leanings, 27% identified themselves as "liberal," 23% as "moderate," and 42% as "conservative" (the remaining 8% indicated "don't know" or did not answer the question.

For more about the 2007 Saint Index, see the Saint Group's summary of the survey results (also touching on other aspects of the survey results not reported on in this blog posting).

Note: the Planning Commissioners Journal also has available to order & download a collection of five articles on NIMBYism and how to deal with it. We've also published an excellent article by Thomas I. Miller on the basics of conducting community surveys -- for those interesting in finding out attitudes in your own community.

Comments

[Paul Mindus]

I would like to invite your readers to take a look as well at the Saint UK Index, a survey conducted by Saint Consulting about UK public attitudes towards development.
This year’s findings revealed public opinion at odds with Government policy:
· 68 percent believe the goal of building three million homes by 2020 is unrealistic
· 90 percent do not believe public consultation has had any impact on projects
· nearly 70 percent see no evidence of planning gain in their communities
· 86 percent want no more local development
The full report is available on The Saint Report, our blog for land use politics, at www.thesaintreport.com
· one in four families actively opposed a local project in the past year.