Survey of Ivins residents: We want fewer tourist amenities, no apartments and more open space

File photo of the Heritage Sculpture next to Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, Nov. 4, 2021 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

IVINS — Ivins residents have delivered a message to their city leaders: Less resorts and tourists, and more trails and dark-sky regulations. Yes to more restaurants and roundabouts, no to more short-term rentals and streetlights. High marks for quality of life, and jeers for growth and development. 

Sign welcomes visitors to Ivins City, Utah on May 22, 2020 | File photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The message comes from the results of a survey sent out to every Ivins resident in November that combined with a series of town hall, Ivins City Council and Planning Commission meetings will ultimately build the basis for a new general plan for the city.

When the survey results were presented to the Ivins City Council during their Dec. 15 meeting, Mayor Chris Hart said it couldn’t be overstated how significant the results will be to the city’s future.

“As a Planning Commission and City Council, our job is to drive the bus and drive it there to where the people of the city want it to go. We now know the stops,” Hart said. “This was a monumental effort, one not done in the city before, and it’s given us a monumental amount of data. We’ve never really known as well as we know now what our residents thought.”

Of the 4,258 surveys sent out, 2,244 were returned, for a 52.7% response rate. Experts on surveys and research have said a good sample would be between 5% and 30%

The top two issues residents said the city should immediately focus on are open space and trails (81.1% very or completely important) and regulating outdoor lighting and maintaining a dark sky (74.3%). 

Given lowest priority were adding streetlights (62.2% very little or no importance) and installing traffic lights rather than roundabouts (61.5%).

During the Dec. 15 meeting, council member Dennis Mehr cautioned against taking the survey results as an absolute that people don’t want something. 

Image from results of survey given to Ivins residents in November 2022. In this graph, residents were asked what issues the city should prioritize with 4-5 being very or strongly important, 3 being neutral and 1-2 being of little or no importance | Image courtesy Ivins City, St. George News | Click to enlarge

“It’s not the same as ‘we don’t want to see those’ as much as ‘we don’t want to see those encouraged.’”

Residents in the survey were most satisfied when asked to rate their quality of life (87.6% very or completely satisfied) and police and fire services (84.3%)  and most dissatisfied with how the city has managed growth in the last five years (46.8% very or completely dissatisfied) and overall development (30.9%).

When it comes to development they would approve of, more residents gave their highest preference to low-density, single-family residences (78.5% highest preference) and preserving agricultural land (69.6%) and weren’t eager to see more apartments (81.5% lowest preference) and resorts/hotels (75.7%).

As for which businesses Ivins residents wanted to see come into the city, most were looking for more restaurants (65.5% highest preference) and small independent businesses (53.8%). Nearly eight of 10 didn’t want to see more short-term rentals (86% lowest preference) or resorts (82.2%). 

Patty Dupre, who led the volunteers that administered the survey and compiled its data, told the council one of the big surprises to her was the lack of enthusiasm for affordable housing. 

“39% said the city should not provide more affordable housing,” said Dupree, who is also the wife of council member Mike Scott. 

When separating the survey results between full-time and part-time residents who don’t live in Ivins year-round (who made up 9% of responses), there were few, if any, differences other than what full-time residents felt strong about, part-timers felt even stronger as far as percentages. 

There were also few differences between long-term residents and those who have lived in Ivins less than a year, though newer residents placed a higher priority on maintaining a dark sky with more open space/trails being second. 

As far as which issues should be priorities for the city, the biggest discrepancies were between households with children as opposed to those without. While still giving a high priority to more open space and trails, they gave higher ratings than others on the need for more parks and playgrounds and better high-speed internet while putting less priority on maintaining a dark sky. Households with children were also more likely to not put priority on adding roundabouts, and they were the only demographic with an overall negative opinion on adding public art. 

Residents line up to speak against a mixed residential and commercial development during the Ivins City Council meeting, Ivins, Utah, Sept. 1, 2022 | File photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

More than three-fourths of the surveys included comments, and “water” was “by far” the most common word found in the comments, according to Dupre. She told the City Council that may be the biggest fault of the survey — that there weren’t more questions on water and water conservation. 

The one question on water conservation –”Are current water conservation requirements for new construction adequate?” – was split between 34.1% saying they were and 45% saying they were not.  

“We are growing too fast. Crime will go up. Don’t have the water or power etc. to keep up. Use some land to make a large lake to store more water,” was one comment pertaining to water in the anonymous survey. “A limitation or moratorium on future development should be strongly considered, especially with the water crisis,” was another.

There were also a minority of comments saying that the limits on water usage had already gone too far. “Stop limiting water use in new developments. Stop being woke. Stop limiting light pollution,” was a comment that reflected that.

“Stop” was the second-most common word, as in the case of this comment: “Stop construction of building new houses, not enough infrastructure to support so many people. Water problem, streets. Need space for more wildlife. Stop development for people to come live here.”

Overhead photo of the golf course at Black Desert Resort, Ivins, Utah, Sept. 29, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Black Desert Resort, St. George News

There were also comments that ran contrary to what was said by a majority of respondents in the survey, like one resident who expressed less support for dark sky lighting initiatives and more support for short-term rentals. 

“House and street lighting restrictions are overreaching and unsafe for children. Restaurants that allow live music would bring visitors and dollars, and create a more tourism-desired feel. Allow other residents to do overnight rentals,” one comment said. 

The next step will be 7 p.m. neighborhood meetings that will be held at Ivins City Hall each night between Jan. 10-12 where all Ivins residents are invited to speak with council and other city officials on the survey results and the general plan. 

The full results of the Ivins survey can be found here.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

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