McKinney's 2023 citizen survey results are out. Here's what we learned

McKinney Courier-Gazette
By Audrey Henvey | Star Local Media
June 22, 2023

McKinney residents have given officials an idea of how they feel about their city.

This year, McKinney brought the National Community Survey to its residents for the fourth time to measure its performance across a spectrum of community livability factors, including economy, mobility, safety, community design and more. The survey is facilitated by Polco and the National Research Center.

The survey was conducted from Jan. 20 through March 3 and was sent to a probability-based sample of 4,500 randomly selected households. Of those, 466 responses were received. There was also a non-probability, open participation survey that received 966 responses.

Numbers presented to the city council on Tuesday reflect the probability-based sample.

“The quality of life ratings in McKinney were very high. And this is very similar to 2021,” said Joe Dell’Olio, senior survey associate with Polco/National Research Center. “Overall quality of life was given positive ratings by 92% of residents, 91% of folks would recommend living in McKinney. And again, right around that 90% of folks had a positive outlook towards the image of McKinney. And that was higher than the national benchmarks. So important to keep that all in mind.”

During the presentation, Dell’Olio shared the following key findings from the survey:

‘Safety is a community strength and a top priority for McKinney residents’

According to presented results, 88% of survey respondents reported their overall feeling of safety in McKinney as “excellent” or “good,” which came in similar to the national benchmark.

In addition, 95% of respondents reported feeling “very” or “somewhat” safe in their neighborhood during the day, and 93% reported “very” or “somewhat” safe in McKinney’s downtown/commercial area during the day. These rankings were similar to the national benchmark.

The report provided to the city notes that safety ratings for McKinney generally remained steady between 2021 and 2023, and all safety-related scores kept pace with national benchmarks.

The report notes that ratings for feelings of safety from violent crime decreased slightly since previous survey results. Eighty-five percent of respondents reported feeling “very” or “somewhat” safe from violent crime in the 2023 survey.

Fire services received “excellent” or “good” ratings from 94% of respondents, and 88% gave “excellent” or “good” ratings for McKinney’s ambulance/emergency medical services.

The report notes that ratings for police/sheriff services saw an 8% decline when it came to ratings for “excellent” or “good” between 2021 and 2023, dropping from 90% to 82%. The report notes that ratings remained similar to comparison communities.

As part of the survey, the city asked respondents how visible the McKinney Police Department is in their neighborhood and throughout the city: 40% of respondents said police were “very visible,” 49% said “somewhat visible” and 11% said “not at all visible.”

‘Residents value the city’s utility infrastructure’

When asked about aspects of the community the city should focus on in the next two years, 92% of respondents identified overall utility infrastructure as a priority, Dell’Olio said.

Responses revealed that “excellent” or “good” ratings for the city’s stormwater management were higher than the national benchmark. In addition, ratings for utility billing, power, sewer services and garbage collection were all similar to the national benchmark.

Affordable high-speed internet access was rated as “excellent” or “good” by 65% of respondents, which came in higher than the national benchmark.

Ratings for overall utility infrastructure in McKinney came in with 25% of responses saying “excellent,” 50% saying “good,” 21% saying “fair,” and 4% saying “poor.”

‘McKinney’s community design may be a potential area of opportunity for the city’

“Although aspects of community design received ratings that met or exceeded national averages, some scores did decline from 2021,” Dell’Olio said. “These results would indicate that there’s potential opportunity for renewed focus, or continued focus, I should say.”

According to presented numbers, 84% of survey respondents said the overall appearance of McKinney was excellent or good, which was higher than the national benchmark. However, Dell’Olio noted, the numbers did dip slightly compared to 2021.

In addition, 84% of respondents gave an “excellent” or “good” rating for their neighborhood as a place to live, similar to national benchmark but nine points down from 2021, he said.

“And about two-thirds of residents offered favorable reviews of the overall quality of new development, well-planned residential growth and public places where folks want to spend time, each experiencing a statistically significant decrease in score, but remaining similar to the national benchmarks,” Dell’Olio added.

Ratings for overall design or layout of McKinney’s residential and commercial areas came in with 25% saying “excellent,” 46% saying “good,” 24% saying “fair” and 4% saying “poor.”

Dell’Olio said the most significant decline in the community design facet of the survey was with regard to availability of affordable quality housing, which experienced a drop of about 14%, from 49% to 35% for ratings of “excellent” or “good.” The rating is similar to the national benchmark.

Other community design items remained stable between surveys, Dell’Olio noted. He mentioned a positive evaluation of the city’s preservation of historical character and community; well-designed neighborhoods and the overall design or layout of residential and commercial areas in McKinney.

The full report is available at mckinneytexas.org/1356/Citizen-Survey.

Looking ahead

With the 2023 survey results delivered, the city is now looking ahead at how to use the data.

“We love to deep-dive into the results a little bit more, particularly on the quality of life elements,” said CoCo Good, director of communications and marketing with the city of McKinney. “There were some great questions about prioritizing things and what people would like to see more of in the city with limited resources, so all of that is taken into account, it’s something that the council and even our partner boards like the McKinney Community Development Corporation take a look at all of that as they’re setting their strategic priorities and objectives for the upcoming years.”

Good said the citizen survey is the only one the city does that is scientifically valid

“So it’s really important to us to get that kind of feedback,” she said. “And really pleased with the results in terms of what citizens are telling us about the quality of life that they experience here in McKinney.”

With four surveys under its belt (from 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023), the city is able to benchmark its most recent data against itself and against other cities across the country.

“We want to improve every year as we can, or at least stay in that same excellent to good category within our own community,” Good said. “So yes, having the long-term data and comparison results is extremely effective. Especially as we have so much growth left.”