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Politics & Government

Farmington Hills Residents Happy With Their City

It's okay to raise revenues to keep up city services, according to half of residents recently polled as part of the 20/20 visioning process.

Farmington Hills residents are largely happy with their city and the services it provides. And while nobody wants to pay more in taxes, more than half believe it's okay to raise revenues to maintain city services.

City Manager Steve Brock presented the results of a resident survey at a Monday night study session. The National Resource Center and the International City/County Management Association measured residents' attitudes by random sampling, mailings and testing, as part of the city's 20/20 visioning process.

Approximately 30 percent of the 1,200 residents contacted participated in the survey, which looked at perceptions of community quality, community design, environmental sustainability, public safety, community inclusiveness, recreation and public trust.

Residents believe that housing is expensive and that there isn't a lot of variety, since high-density housing is lacking. Councilman Barry Brickner said that was to be expected, since the city was planned with space in mind, rather than capacity.

About 60 percent of residents polled believe the city has the right amount of population growth.

"They think there's good or excellent economic sustainability and shopping," Brock said. "They would like to see more job growth."

While surveyed residents are happy with the state of services and the look of their neighborhoods, 44 percent are "neutral" on the city's economic prospects. They are overwhelmingly happy with the state of public safety in Farmington Hills; a full 96 percent have never experienced crime in any form.

Brock said some of the information should come as no surprise.

"We found that 94 percent of residents have never used a bus for public transportation," he said.

Councilwoman Nancy Bates said the survey was exceptionally positive, considering some of the city's demographics.

"It's good considering we have so many people living in apartments," she said. "People who live in apartments tend to be more vocal."

Councilman Michael Bridges said the survey showed the city was meeting residents' expectations despite universally-acknowledged hard economic times.

"It indicates we're getting the job done," he said.

While the survey was rated 95 percent accurate (given ±5 percent margin for error), council members found some of the numbers a bit hard to believe. According to the residents polled, 94 percent helped a neighbor who needed it and 85 percent vote in scheduled elections. The council, as a group, laughed at the very high readership numbers for the city newsletter.

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Correction: The margin of error for the survey, which is ±5 percent, was incorrectly reported in the original version of this story.

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