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Norridgewock committee refines community survey, plans wide distribution and incentives
Summary
Advisory committee reviewed and edited survey questions covering housing, business preferences and demographics, agreed to add a 'self‑employed' employment option, and decided to require an affiliation question. The survey will launch via SurveyMonkey with QR codes, hard copies at town locations and a small incentive for respondents.
The Norridgewock Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee spent its meeting reviewing community survey wording and the distribution plan, agreeing on a set of readability and content edits and on how the survey will be shared with residents.
Staff described plans to host the survey on SurveyMonkey and to distribute it via the town website, the town Facebook page, QR codes posted in public locations and printed copies available at the town office and library. The committee discussed outreach to less tech‑savvy residents and agreed that a single required first question should ask respondents to indicate their affiliation with Norridgewock (for example: live, work, pay taxes, children attend school).
On content, members debated wording on population questions (settling on “current population density” as clearer than “spread‑out” or “sparse”), how to label public versus privately provided services, and whether to include 'self‑employed' as a distinct employment category. The committee agreed to add 'self‑employed' to employment options to better capture contractors and mobile workers.
Housing items prompted discussion about accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Committee members recommended spelling out 'accessory dwelling unit' or 'accessory apartment' and including a short parenthetical definition so respondents unfamiliar with the acronym still understand the question. They also suggested separate categories or clarifying notes for tiny homes, manufactured homes and stick‑built single‑family housing.
Committee members raised a state statutory constraint on minimum lot size: members noted the committee should review LD 1829 and related state rules before proposing changes to the survey language about lot size. Staff said they will check the statute and refine the question accordingly.
To boost response rates, the committee discussed an incentive plan of small gift cards (staff to draft the terms and confirm whether the municipality needs specific sweepstakes language). Staff will finalize the SurveyMonkey link, generate a QR code and provide printable versions for distribution; the committee expects to publish the survey and follow up with the committee once it is live.
Next steps: staff will circulate the updated survey link and finalize any statutory clarifications for the housing questions; survey launch and distribution logistics (QR placement, newsletter mention, hard copies at the town office and library) will follow.
