James City County has their ear open to residents as they consider the new results of the 2019 Citizen Survey.
The survey is conducted every five years before the county begins its Comprehensive Plan update, said Paul Holt, the county’s planning director.
“As a part of the Comprehensive Plan update, citizen opinions from both the survey and other public input throughout the update process are used as a basis for the update and are reflected in the different Comprehensive Plan sections,” Holt said.
This is the fifth time the survey has been completed and each time the results give the county a more in-depth look at what residents want for the future. The survey covers a range of topics from county growth to residents’ satisfaction with county services.
Since the results have only just come back, Holt said it’s too early in the process for them to be considered in the update but in the near future the Comprehensive Plan will be edited to reflect the survey data.
RELATED STORY: Here’s an update on James City County’s Comprehensive Plan
The county’s Comprehensive Plan is a document that guides future development, policies and public services over the next 10 to 20 years, according to the county’s website. The current plan was adopted in 2015.
The survey, which was created by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia, was sent to 3,000 randomly-selected residents and 1,060 residents replied.
While that may seem like a small number, Holt said statisticians determined the number was statistically significant enough to reflect the county as a whole. These numbers provide a response rate of 35.3 percent with an overall margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent.
“All the citizen input is vitally important because it is the citizen [comprehensive plan],” Holt said. “One of the important aspects of this survey was that as a whole, it can be used to represent the county.”
The results of the survey were presented at the James City County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meeting recently. Some of the results show an overall satisfaction with county services, with the county’s parks and recreation department being the most well-liked at 94.6 percent and the development of an indoor sports complex being the least at 75.1 percent.
For county development, 79.3 percent of residents strongly agreed that developers should always be required to pay a fee to the county to offset public costs. However, only 52 percent of residents agreed that it is better to have neighborhoods in which there is a mix of low, middle and high income housing options.
Now that the survey results are in, the recently appointed Community Participation Team is planning additional opportunities for community input throughout the year that will be applied to the Comprehensive Plan.
The Community Participation team is designed to help the planning commission with public outreach, according to the county’s website. The team is comprised of four Policy Committee members and six leaders from the community to help plan the review process and gather feedback.
To learn more, visit James City County online.
