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Survey: Minnetonka residents rate city services highly but flag property taxes and street repair
Summary
A 400-sample 2026 community survey presented to the Minnetonka City Council found very high overall quality-of-life and service ratings but identified property taxes and street repair as the top concerns; strong majorities supported a proposed local-option sales tax to fund fire station rebuilds, Marsh upgrades, trails and Opus-area park improvements.
Peter Leman, the consultant who presented the 2026 community survey, told the Minnetonka City Council the sample (400 interviews, March 23'April 8) produced largely positive results for the city but flagged taxes and street repair as persistent concerns.
The lede: Leman said overall quality-of-life ratings are “extraordinarily high” in Minnetonka, with 96% rating the city positively and 44% describing their quality of life as “excellent.” But 21% of respondents identified property taxes as the most serious issue facing the community, and street repair drew a substantially higher unfavorable rating than other services.
Why it matters: The survey is being used to inform 2027 budget discussions, including whether to ask voters for a local-option sales tax and how to prioritize capital projects. Councilmembers and staff discussed whether survey results should trigger follow-up questions, for example to understand whether street-repair complaints reflect inadequate work or dissatisfaction with response times.
Key findings: Leman described survey reliability as projectable to +/-5% (95% confidence) and said 62% of households now are cell-phone-only. Highlights presented to the council included: support for five local-option sales-tax projects (rebuild Fire Station 2, 83% support; rebuild Fire Station 3, 83%; trails to business districts and schools, 81%; upgrades to the Marsh, 79%; Opus-area park/open space near the planned light-rail station, 76%). On other topics, 55% favored additional short-term-rental regulations (35% opposed, 10% wanted more information); ebike ownership was about 15% and 22% expressed concerns about ebike use.
Staff and council reaction: Council members raised programmatic follow-ups (teen programs, outreach to non-parents on youth programming) and communications questions: Leman said the city newsletter (the "Minnetonka Memo") remains the primary information source for 51% of respondents. City manager Mike Punk noted the postage cost of mailed newsletters ("$25,000 or so to mail out every month") and said cable-franchise funds currently cover mailing costs but that revenue is declining.
What happens next: Staff said the council will formally accept the survey results at a future meeting and may commission follow-up or deeper, demographic-targeted questions (for example, to better understand the 22% of households that say teen programming is too few). The survey results will be used as input to the 2027 budget conversations.
Ending: Council members said the results underscore both strengths (service satisfaction, high quality-of-life ratings) and actionable concerns (streets and taxes) that staff will address as the budget is developed.
