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Elmhurst survey: residents rate safety, parks and schools highly, but affordability and housing availability lag
Summary
A new National Community Survey of Elmhurst finds high resident satisfaction with safety, parks, mobility and education, while affordability and the availability of affordable quality housing scored low; the city received 488 probability-sample responses (20%), producing a ±4.4% margin of error.
The Elmhurst City Council heard a presentation on a National Community Survey showing strong resident ratings on safety, parks and recreation, education and mobility, while affordability — especially availability of affordable quality housing — ranked low.
Jason Neumeier, director of survey research at Polco, told the council the city’s probability mail sample reached 2,500 randomly selected addresses and yielded 488 completed surveys, a 20% response rate that he said produces a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points for the results presented. Neumeier said an additional open online survey collected 202 responses but the presentation and report were based on the 488 random-sample responses.
“About nine in 10 residents expressed satisfaction with Elmhurst as a place to live,” Neumeier said, and said the city scored particularly high on fire services (98% excellent or good) and ambulance/EMS (97%). He reported 96% of respondents felt safe in downtown and commercial areas during the day.
On economy and housing, Neumeier said affordability measures were mixed: roughly 17% of respondents rated the availability of affordable quality housing as excellent or good, and about 25% rated cost of living in Elmhurst as excellent or good. He pointed to the quality–importance gap analysis, where economy and utilities showed the largest gaps (about 10–20%), as an indicator of where residents want more focus.
Council members asked about response rates, comparability to the national benchmark and how specific questions were worded. Neumeier said the 20% response rate exceeds typical overall response rates for similar surveys (often 10–12%), that the national benchmark includes about 400 communities (many suburban jurisdictions and Chicagoland villages), and directed members to the full report and embedded survey instrument for precise question wording.
The presentation also included results from custom questions: the city website, newsletters and text messages ranked highest as information sources; priorities to improve walkability included safer pedestrian crossings and better sidewalk conditions; and 45% of respondents said they were familiar with and had used the Explore Elmhurst trolley, with 73% of those riders rating their most recent experience excellent.
The presenter offered city staff ongoing benchmarking and engagement tools through Polco to support future polling and custom comparisons. The council thanked the presenter and discussed repeating the survey every two years to build trend data.
