Highland City 2020 Survey Summary and Responses to Comments

Last year I offered a smoothie to the person who could find the comment that made me laugh out loud. This year it will go to the person that provides the longest list of positive adjectives found in comments (email me at mayor@highlandcity.org). These surveys do impact council decisions. Thanks to  those who participated last year. I encourage everyone to participate in the next one which we plan to distribute it in March.

There were 396 comments in the survey from 354 residents. The top three issues based on the number of residents who commented about them were::

• Parks & Trails (88 residents): It is clear from comments that parks and trails are valued in Highland and that residents want us to take better care of them, especially the trails. A number of people indicated that they do not want trails to be sold.
• Taxes & Fees (75 residents): A number of residents asked that the city quit raising taxes or fees. The city has not raised property tax in 12 years. For 2019 Highland City had the 2nd lowest property tax rate in N. Utah County and the 3rd lowest in the entire county. We have added a public safety fee and road fee in recent years and adjusted the other fees (Pressured Irrigation, Sewer, Storm Sewer, & Culinary Water) to cover the costs of maintaining those systems. In spite of those changes our utility rates are slightly below the N. County Average. Click here for more information.
• Roads & Traffic (71 residents): Some expressed concern regarding the lack of progress on our roads. In 2020 we completed the 3rd year of our 7-year road plan and finished more road work than we’ve ever done before (click here to see all the projects we did in 2020). For information about our 7 year road plan and the current status please click here. Many were concerned about the increase in traffic in Highland as well as speeding.  Unfortunately, we will not see a decrease in traffic in the coming years as Highland and the rest of the county continues to grow. Creating more road connections does help disperse traffic and improve traffic flow within the city.

New this year to the survey report are a few charts and graphs that compare results between previous surveys. Here are some things I found interesting:

• The quality of life rating for each year has been 3.5 out of 4
• All city service ratings experienced a drop in 2019, except for roads, but bounced back in 2020. I suspect a factor in the drop was the a controversy that arose with respect to Mountain Ridge Park and a proposed pickleball complex.
• Roads had the lowest service rating each year but was the only service that improved each year.
• I was surprised that online survey responses dropped 56% whereas paper responses went down 18% only in 2020.

Below are charts and graphs that summarize the 2020 survey responses and compare some responses over the last 5 years. Please be patient they may take a while to load.

Charts & Graphs

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Click here to view the 2020 summary data upon which these charts were based.

Comments and Replies

Please note, my replies to comments were written between April and December of 2020. They represented my thoughts at the time. As I learn more about an issue my opinions are subject to change. I did try to be accurate in my responses but I may not have had all the facts or circumstances may have changed since I replied.

Comment sentiment ratings (positive, neutral, or negative) were subjective. I based the ratings on the tone of the comment. For example, most suggestions for improvement were deemed neutral or in some cases positive. If the comment included a personal attack or adjectives like horrible, terrible ... I rated it negative.

Comment Summary Information

All Comments and Responses
Comments are ordered by the survey section the appear in: General, Park Elements, Communication/Information, Park Usage, Trail Usage, and Library.

Comments by Top 3 Topics

1. Parks & Trails

2. Taxes & Fees

3. Roads

Links to current and prior survey data:

• 2016-2020 Survey Comparison Data
• 2020 City Survey Data (674) responses)
• 2019 City Survey Post with Summary Charts
• 2019 City Survey Data (1,106) responses)
• 2018 City Survey Post with Summary Charts
• 2018 City Survey Data. (1,084 responses).
• 2017 City Survey Post with Summary Charts
• 2017 City Survey Data (1,074 responses)
• 2016 City Survey Post with Summary Charts
• 2016 City Survey Data (1094 responses)

List of links that were included in replies to comments:

• Highland City 2020 Projects Map
• Highland City General Plan
• Highland City Information on Parks and Trails
• Highland City List of Parks
• Highland City Maps (land use, subdivisions, trails ….)
• Highland City Municipal Code
• Highland City Request Tracker (site you can use to report problems)
• Highland City Road Plan Overview
• Highland City Council Voting History
• Highland Deer Control Program Impact Data
• Highland Street Traffic Comparisons
• Posts covering Highland by Rod Mann (current mayor and former council member)
• Property Taxes & Fees (2019-20) Highland Compared to Other N. Utah County Cities
• Sunday Closure Posts and Information
• Utah Sate Transparency Website (city, county, state …) financial data.

Other Links

• Tips on influencing local government
• Utah traffic accident history map
• YouTube channels (subscribe to stay informed)
  Highland City – live and recorded city council meetings
  Mayor Mann – live and recorded Meet with the Mayor events
  Utah's Highlander - 2-minute summaries of city council meetings