Marin Community Survey Results Highlight Environment, Parks

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Marin County leaders this week released the results from a community survey conducted earlier this year, asking 4,500 randomly selected households to share their thoughts on quality of life issues and rank their priorities for areas of government focus.

Polco and the National Research Center facilitated the survey between late April and early June, receiving just over 800 responses. Pollsters compared the results to national benchmarks, finding Marin residents rated their community's natural environment, parks and recreational opportunities highest.

When polled on the importance of each category, residents ranked utility infrastructure and the natural environment highest. Environmental factors cited most often included Marin County's open space, air quality and preservation of natural areas.

Respondents indicated an overall feeling of safety from crime but were more concerned about natural disasters than other communities nationwide. Disaster preparedness was a key area where residents felt the government needed to direct its focus over the next five years, followed by addressing workforce housing, racial disparities, climate change and affordable housing.

As for safety services, residents indicated high satisfaction with fire and emergency medical services, with slightly lower marks for police services and crime prevention.

"It's important to regularly seek our community's opinion about what's important to them and how they feel about the services they're receiving," said Stephanie Moulton-Peters, president of the Board of Supervisors. "While the results show there are many things for which we can be proud, they also show there's much work to do in key areas like housing, emergency preparedness, and sea level rise, for example, that will require community-wide effort."

The pollsters distributed the same survey used in 2018 to allow for consistency between years, and on Tuesday the board received the results and compared them to national benchmarks and previous results. County officials said they will evaluate the results further with representatives from all county departments and discuss how to address needs in sessions through March.

>> The full presentation on the 2023 community survey results is available on the county's website.