Keller citizen survey shows residents have positive opinions on city’s direction

The Keller City Council reviewed results from its community survey, which showed residents have an overall positive outlook on the city’s direction.

At its April 19 work session, the city council received the survey results from Ron Gailey of Mobile Digital Insights, which created the survey for the city. A total of 1,795 valid responses from Keller residents were received.

The survey was sent out to residents via email and social media on March 22 and closed on April 13. Keller City Manager Mark Hafner initially brought the idea to Keller City Council during its Feb. 1 work session and said the survey would be helpful in incorporating the thoughts of citizens for the fiscal year 2022-23 budget before the council begins its work in the spring.

The Keller City Council then approved distributing the survey at the February work session. The survey cost the city about $8,000.

The survey asked about basic demographics, such as age, gender and marital status, along with questions that allowed residents to rank and judge topics, such as the city's direction, city amenities and basic city services. The survey also allowed for some open-ended feedback.

One of the survey questions asked whether residents felt the city was heading in the right or wrong direction, and 82% of respondents said yes and 18% said no, according to Gailey’s presentation. In addition, 64% of respondents said they would likely recommend Keller to a friend.

When asked to compare Keller with other cities in the area, 30% responded that Keller is much better, 42% said somewhat better, 19% said about the same, 8% said somewhat worse and 1% said much worse, Gailey’s presentation showed.

Respondents were also asked if the city has improved, stayed the same or gotten worse since moving there—52% said it has improved, 36% said it has stayed the same and 12% said it has gotten worse, according to the presentation.

The survey had residents rank a variety of city-related topics in order of importance, with quality schools topping the list as most important, managing the growth and density of the city was second, minimizing property taxes for city services came in third and maintaining existing infrastructure was fourth, the presentation showed.

Residents were also asked to choose which city events were most important to them. Keller Lights, the city’s Fourth of July event, was ranked No. 1 with 53%, Keller Summer Nights came in second with 50% and Holly Days came in third with 49%, according to the presentation.

When asked about what amenities and improvements would be worth using tax dollars to develop and maintain in the city, 53% chose trail and sidewalk expansion, 41% chose incentives to attract quality businesses, 32% chose bike lanes, 29% chose an outdoor performing arts space, 22% chose additional or enhanced special events, 20% chose public use splash pads, 16% chose an indoor performing arts facility, 14% chose additional pickleball courts, 10% chose additional indoor gym space and 5% chose additional indoor community space.

“I hope and want to push for us to continue to do these surveys and have that pulse check,” Place 4 City Council member Beckie Paquin said at the meeting. “I think that's so important. And for us to consider a way to engage even more residents to partake in the survey.”