Salt Lake City Community Planning Research and Statistics

Recently, the American Planning Association published their report entitled “Planning in America: Perceptions and Priorities 2012“. In the report, the APA explains what important factors go into community planning. This is especially important for Salt Lake City and Sugarhouse, as new housing developments bring more people into the downtown area.

What are people most interested in improving in their community? Let’s check it out:

There are a lot of lessons here. Here are some key statistics reported by the APA:

• 14% believe that market forces alone, without community planning, will help the economy and create more jobs; 66% believe it takes both.
• 67% believe that “community planning is important to economic recovery.” Community planning, as defined in this report, is supported by 79% of the general public.
• 66% of Americans believe their own community needs more planning. This finding holds true for 65% of Republicans and 67% of independent voters, 75% of Democrats, and near the 60% or above level across those in urban, suburban, and rural areas and in small towns.
• More than 50% of Americans want to participate in community planning efforts, including
  majorities of nearly all of the demographic sub-segments.
• 75% agree with the statement, “Engaging citizens through local planning is essential to rebuilding
  local economies, creating jobs and improving people’s lives.”
• Job creation (70%), safety (69%), schools (67%), neighborhood protection (64%), and water quality
  (62%) are the highest ranked priorities for community planners to work on.
• Given limited local fiscal resources, Americans a give high priority (more than 60%) to funding the following services: Education, job creation, clean water, safety, economic development, and health.
• 52% support the use of taxes to pay for implementation of planning while 20% are opposed.

According to this next graph, the highest number of respondents think that regular people, “neighborhood representatives”, are the best kind of leaders to implement the changes needed in a community.

Basically, if you’re interested, you should get involved in the Salt Lake Community. Your neighbors want you to. Check out the Salt Lake City Council page for more info, especially the Open City Hall button. There, you can make your voice heard in the community planning process. If you’re looking to join our community, though, please contact us at the Joshua Stern Team, by calling 801-859-7509 or using the chat window at the bottom of your screen.