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Summit County advisory committees favor online survey plus targeted in-person outreach for new general plans
Summary
At a joint meeting, staff and advisory committee members agreed online surveys with open-comment fields should form the backbone of the county's outreach, supplemented by intercept surveys, HOA visits and city-council briefings; staff plans draft surveys for the fall and asked committees for written feedback.
Maddie McDonough, a planner in Summit County's Community Development Department, asked the joint Snyderville Basin and Eastern Summit County General Plan Advisory Committees to weigh outreach options and review two draft survey formats for the county's updated general plans. "The intention is not to have these surveys go live until the fall, so we do have some time," McDonough said.
Committee members broadly endorsed an online survey with open-ended comment fields as the most practical way to reach large numbers while preserving meaningful feedback. Thomas Cook, a long-serving Snyderville Basin planning commissioner, said general plans are advisory documents and cautioned staff to explain clearly how plan language translates into code: "general plans ... are advisory documents. And then the code becomes the actual law." Members said that clarity would help volunteers explain the process to neighbors.
Participants discussed trade-offs between quantity and depth of input. Several members warned of self-selection bias in any survey and recommended combining an online survey with targeted in-person efforts: intercept surveys in public spaces, short presentations at HOA or neighborhood meetings, and outreach at municipal council meetings. Denise Rhodes suggested leveraging HOAs, reporting high participation in those meetings; other members described prior analog methods (card tables at markets) and urged finding digital equivalents.
Staff presented two approaches: one tailored survey for Snyderville Basin and one for Eastern Summit County, or a single countywide survey with demographic questions so responses can be separated by area. Maddie asked advisory members to provide feedback by email on the draft questionnaires and proposed timeline.
Maddie told the group the updated general plans will be followed by more detailed neighborhood-area plans, which will enable staff and councils to craft the specific code changes that implement plan goals. "So we're starting this process of getting more specific," she said, "and that's the intention behind them." The committee agreed to review the drafts and return comments to staff before the fall survey launch.
