Polco survey finds high marks for safety, parks and quality of life; affordability and wildfire preparedness flagged as concerns

Polco/National Community Survey results released to the Board of Supervisors on March 26 show residents rated Nevada County positively as a place to live, visit and retire, and gave high marks to parks and natural environment, while highlighting affordability, housing and certain wildfire preparedness concerns as priorities for future focus.

Joe D'Aulio, Polco project manager, summarized the methodology: a 3,000-address probability mailing produced 518 completed surveys (18% response, +/-4% margin of error) and an additional open-participation online survey drew more than 1,200 responses. "Of the 3,000 randomly selected households, they began receiving mailings on September 12 and the survey remained open for six weeks," Polco reported.

Key findings included very strong feelings of daytime safety, high ratings for parks/recreation and broad satisfaction with county customer service. Areas that trended lower than national benchmarks included utility/recycling services, transportation components and affordability: only about 10% rated the availability of affordable quality housing positively, and a large share named concerns about wildfire-related issues such as the ability to find or renew fire insurance and receiving emergency alerts during a wildfire.

Board members noted the survey is one input among many and asked staff to publish the data and make the interactive Polco dashboard available to partners for deeper analysis. County staff said the survey will help target communications and identify topics for follow-up research.