Commerce City Council hears results of citizen survey

    COMMERCE CITY — A majority of residents view the quality of life in the city as “good,” or “very good,” according to the results of a survey commissioned by the city.
    The survey results were presented to council Feb. 6 in advance of the council’s retreat later this month.
    Using information gained from the 406 surveys, the report has a maximum raw margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent with a 95 percent confidence level. The survey was conducted by Corona Insights, which has conducted surveys for Commerce City in the past.
    Because of the city’s natural division into a north and south component, the survey also breaks down the results according to geographic location.
    In the north, 64 percent of respondents felt that the larger metro area was moving in the right direction, compared to 61 percent in the south. But the south had a greater number of people report that the city was moving in the wrong direction with 26 percent, as opposed to the 16 percent in the north with a similar view.
    Residents were also asked to rank their satisfaction with specific issues for the city. The clear winner was the availability of outdoor activities, with 83 percent of residents saying they were satisfied or very satisfied with “recreation, parks, trails, and open spaces” in Commerce City.
    There was a clear appetite for more shopping locations with 45 percent of respondents saying they were somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the amount and convenience of services and shopping in the city.
    The results were collected from residents with a wide range of experience with the city ranging from less than a year living in the community, to 10 years or more. The largest group of respondents, 45 percent, lived in the city five to nine years.
    The largest age group of respondents, 27 percent, were over the age of 65, followed closely by the 55-64 age group with 24 percent.
    More respondents had positive ratings than negative ratings on all of the elected officials addressed in the survey, with the exception of the local school board. Positive ratings of the governor were the highest among the groups addressed, while the state legislature received the fewest positive ratings.
    According to the survey, between 49 and 55 percent of respondents rated Commerce City government staff as being at least “good” in the areas of knowledge, professionalism, honesty and customer focus.
    Roughly four in five respondents, said they feel at least “somewhat safe” in their neighborhood at night, and 41 percent said that they feel very safe. Nine percent reported they feel “very unsafe” in their neighborhood at night. There was a larger gap in this result for respondents from the north and the south, with 50 percent of those in the north feeling very safe compared to 35 percent in the south.
    This gap was also reflected in the comfort residents had with calling the police. In the south, 88 percent felt comfortable calling police and 12 said they weren’t comfortable. In the north, 96 percent felt comfortable calling the police.
    Reasonable housing prices were the top reason cited by residents for living in Commerce City with 62 percent of respondents. This was followed at 43 percent to be near friends or family and 41 percent because they liked the community.
    Going forward, council will have to balance the priorities of the north and south reported in the survey. There were large differences in the opinions of those in the northern part of the city and those in the south. Over one-third (38 percent) of those in the north said that more grocery stores would be their highest priority, for example, compared to only five percent of those in the south. thirty-six percent of those in the south said more job opportunities would be their highest priority, compared to 14 percent in the north.    
    The full results of the survey are available on city’s website: www.ci.commerce-city.co.us.

Contact Ben Wiebesiek at 303-659-2522, ext. 206, or email bwiebesiek@metrowestnewspapers.com.