Majority of St. Charles residents believe city great place to live, raise family: survey

ST. CHARLES – The vast majority of those answering a city survey believe that St. Charles continues to be a great place to live and raise children.

The survey was conducted from March through May by Kansas-based ETC Institute. According to the survey, 99% of respondents rated St. Charles as an excellent or good place to live and 98% rated St. Charles as an excellent or good place to raise children.

"We saw that residents obviously have a very positive perception of the city," said Jason Morado, director of community research for Kansas-based ETC Institute, in talking about the results at the St. Charles City Council's Government Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday.

The six-page survey was delivered online and by mail to randomly selected households throughout the city. The company received 507 completed surveys, surpassing its goal of 400 surveys.

ETC Institute specializes in conducting community surveys for local government bodies. This was the first time ETC Institute had conducted a community survey for St. Charles.

The city of St. Charles has been conducting a community survey since 1996. Residents also feel safe in their neighborhoods, according to the results of the survey.

According to the survey, 93% of the respondents feel very safe walking alone in their neighborhood during the day.

"There are several reasons to conduct a survey like this," Morado said. "One is to get an objective assessment of how satisfied residents are with major city services and also to help determine what residents feel are the top priorities for the community."

Those taking the survey were pleased with the quality of city services, with 91% saying they were either very satisfied or satisfied with the quality of services provided by the city.

"You are 43 percent above the national average," Morado said. "And that's really one of the most important questions on the survey. Because they're asking residents to take into account all the services that you're providing."

In addition, 83% percent of respondents were either very satisfied or satisfied with the customer service they receive from city employees, which is 41 percent above the national average.

The results of the survey are at the city's website, stcharlesil.gov.