Mountlake Terrace survey: residents rate safety and transit high, economy and affordability lag

Mountlake Terrace officials on May 28 released results from the city's National Community Survey showing strong resident satisfaction with safety and transportation but notable concerns about the local economy and affordability. City staff said 3,500 households were randomly sampled; 448 returned completed surveys, producing a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.

The consultant presenting the results, Sonia Wittink of PCO, said the survey reports two standard measures for 10 livability facets: quality (excellent/good) and importance for the next two years. Safety, parks and mobility earned the highest percent-positive ratings and generally performed at or above PCO's national and custom cohort benchmarks. Transit services showed particularly strong ratings.

But the quality'importance gap analysis identified the economy as the largest shortfall: residents rated local economic conditions lower while marking it a top priority. Lower-than-benchmark results also appeared for shopping opportunities, downtown vibrancy and employment opportunities. Affordability metricsincluding access to affordable housing, child care and health servicesreceived modest ratings, matching concerns in similarly sized jurisdictions.

During council questions, PCO said the mailed survey (initiated Feb. 5) was the project's statistically valid core; an open online version drew 32 additional responses but the main report relies on the randomly selected returns. PCO tracked and weighted results to county-level census data to adjust for age skews, and reported duplicate responses at under 3% of cases when they occur.

Councilmembers said the findings will help set budget and policy priorities, noting the economy/affordability gap and declining ratings for arts/events despite improvements in resident trust and perceptions of local government. Council members asked staff to post the PDF and interactive dashboard; PCO confirmed both will be shared with the city for public access.

Next steps identified by council and staff included posting the full report publicly, considering targeted follow-up polling or neighborhood-level tracking in future surveys, and folding the survey findings into budget and economic development planning.