The City of Estevan has released the report for the first phase of its Our Estevan report, which is part of development of a new official community plan.
The survey, named Community Identity and Vision, asked people questions about a variety of topics. Land development services manager Richard Neufeld then tabulated the results and filed his report.
A total of 126 surveys were completed for Phase 1, and 183 more were partially finished.
“This was to get more of a helicopter view of how people identify in the community, and then the others are going to be a lot more focused on specific things,” said Neufeld.
The first question in the community vision survey asked people for their land-use priorities. A developed trail network led the way at 18 per cent, followed by downtown revitalization and more pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods, which were at 16 per cent each.
Outdoor recreational activities received 15 per cent support, and summer community events finished with 14 per cent support.
Another question on the survey asked people about the attachment they have to their community.
“Most people, they know what area they live in, so what that might lead to is when we have something like an in-fill project, what we might not do is what we do now, where we take this whole area south of Fourth Street, and treat it all the same,” said Neufeld.
So if a developer wants to build in the Westview area, for example, the city would focus its consultation on the Westview area.
Another question asked people what makes their neighbourhood special. The responses were what he expected. They liked the security, the older homes, the proximity of a park or a school, lot sizes and the sense of community.
Other questions dealt with what people like most about Estevan, the biggest things they would change about the community, the provision of city services, and the quality of life people enjoy. The latter found nearly 79 per cent appreciated the quality of life.
He was also interested to see that 54 per cent of respondents aren’t concerned about negative impacts of land use.
“When we get into further things like in-fill, you have a block with 20 lots, and somebody bulldozes down one of those old houses, and puts a duplex in, and everything is fine. But then it happens again, and again and again, and how many times should that be allowed to happen before the city says you need to consult with the neighbourhood to see what they’ll accept.”
Neufeld noted that based on the findings, people in Estevan are practical, and want the city to look after what it has before starting on new projects.
He also found that people want to have pathways and sidewalks, even though the city is very vehicle-centric.
People are also appreciative of the opportunity to provide feedback for the community plan, he said. Seventy-four per cent of respondents support using a survey approach as one way to gather citizen input on important municipal questions.
The majority of responses have been coming in online. The city also has kiosks at city hall and the Estevan leisure Centre where people can fill out surveys.
Neufeld said this first phase is vital for the community plan because it shows the attitudes of people in the community.
“One of the things that you could say is we want these trails and we want them to be built, but we don’t want them to be built at the expense of one of our core services, like road maintenance, or water line replacement or that kind of thing,” said Neufeld.
The focus is now on the survey for downtown Estevan. The survey was released at the same time as the first survey, but the focus on it started just after the Victoria Day long weekend. It will remain the focal survey until mid-June.
“There are questions regarding parking. There are questions regarding what people would like to see downtown,” said Neufeld.
One initial finding is that people want to see more outdoor summer events downtown.
More than 100 people have responded to that survey. Some people have done all seven surveys, he said, even though the last five have yet to be launched.
It’s also not too late to submit a survey for the Community Identity and Vision survey, although the prize draw for the first survey has already taken place.
“When we get to October, I’ll be updating everything, so if you fill one of these out in July, it’s still going to count,” said Neufeld.
It means the data could change quite a bit, but at this point, the information is pretty accurate.
