By Megan Miller, Special to the Independent
Recent surveys show overall satisfaction from Laguna Beach residents and businesses, but highlight areas of concern in City planning and development, city staffers said Tuesday.
The two city council-commissioned surveys were conducted by the research firm Polco and distributed from November through January to a random sampling of residents.
A resident survey, which recorded 553 responses, focused on the livability of Laguna Beach, and a business-focused survey provided feedback to local government on economic opportunities. Overall, eight in 10 residents responded that Laguna Beach was a desirable place to raise kids and retire in. Economic health was among the categories that surpassed the national average, but community development was identified as an area for improvement.
Results were compared to Polco’s benchmark database, comprising over 500 communities nationwide, and also to previous data gathered from the last citywide survey conducted in 2012.
Some councilmembers in Tuesday’s meeting expressed interest in seeing how the survey results compared to other coastal communities, but it was not an option available in the initial results of the survey, senior management analyst Jeremy Frimond said.
“The goal of this is to understand what the Laguna Beach residents and business community want,” Frimond said.
Less than 50% of those surveyed responded positively to questions about Laguna Beach’s land use, zoning, and the overall quality of new development. Only 28% of respondents were happy about affordable housing options.
Yet other areas improved, including significant jumps in positive responses regarding the City’s commitment to culture and the arts, and disaster preparedness.
Councilmember George Weiss singled out the police and fire departments, commending them for the overwhelmingly positive responses to their services.
Traffic flow and parking were among the concerns identified by the business survey. Only two in 10 reported feeling the City does an adequate job of attracting new businesses, and 7 in 10 respondents tended to be business owners who had resided in Laguna Beach for more than 10 years.
About 57% of business respondents supported the City building new parking facilities.
Complaints about roars from the exhausts of modified cars and motorcycles, which continue to be an area of concern for Laguna Beach residents, were not included in the survey. The questions were unanimously approved in a September meeting, but Councilmember Toni Iseman said she didn’t understand why noise wasn’t included for resident input.
“Two or three blocks from Pacific Coast Highway you can hear the noise,” Iseman said.
Earlier in the meeting, Weiss pointed to a recent World Health Organization report that the second biggest environmental cause of health degradation is noise, behind air pollution.
Iseman asked whether it would be possible to compare the results of the survey to other coastal cities, which Frimond estimated could cost another $1,000 to $2,000 on top of the approximately $15,000 the City already spent.
“The question is, what’s the goal? What are we trying to reach?” Iseman said.
Councilmember Peter Blake said those unhappy with the survey could “crunch the numbers” however they wanted but claimed they wouldn’t be happy “unless the numbers come back to support their initiative.”
“Our community voted a certain way. The answers are there. The data is there,” Blake said.
When Weiss asked about specific questions in the survey, Dupuis responded, “We did what the Council asked us to do, so I don’t want to debate the Council on this point.”
The survey was conducted primarily to gauge community interest in certain areas, Mayor Sue Kempf said. In response to the City’s ongoing parking complications, Kempf and Mayor Pro Tem Bob Whalen will host a listening session March 8 to further hear residents’ concerns.
Frimond added that the City Council could choose to further compare the results of the survey to a more specified list of other coastal cities at a later date, if they so choose.
A full report on the surveys’ results can be found at lagunabeachcity.net.
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