The City of Santa Clarita conducted its biennial public opinion poll earlier this year in an effort to learn how residents feel about the City’s job performance, to learn the importance of local issues and to determine areas where improvement is needed.

The 2016 poll surveyed 570 adults that make up a cross section of Santa Clarita residents of varying age groups who live in Canyon Country (36 percent), Newhall (16 percent), Saugus (22 percent) and Valencia (26 percent). Respondents were asked questions ranging from their experience with the use of City services, top community issues, as well as trust, availability of jobs, public safety, city beautification and landscaping, traffic, growth and libraries to name a few.

Residents in Santa Clarita place a lot of trust in their City, with 83 percent saying they trust or strongly trust the City of Santa Clarita. This response is up from 80 percent in 2014.

When asked if they felt the City of Santa Clarita was on the right track, 77 percent said yes, citing quality of life (35 percent) and a clean community (13 percent) as their reasons for the response. Asked how they would rate the overall quality of life in Santa Clarita, 85 percent responded “excellent” or “good.”

Respondents were asked what they felt was the most important issue facing Santa Clarita today. In response 19 percent said traffic/congestion; 15.8 percent said water availability/drought; 10.6 percent said growth/development; 9.4 percent said jobs or economy and 8.3 percent said public safety.

Learning about residents’ satisfaction with City services is important and helps the City continually improve. The highest satisfaction (very or somewhat satisfied) ratings included: Park facilities 91 percent; fire protection and prevention 90 percent; beautification of roadways and medians 89 percent; trails and paseos for public use 84 percent.

Of those surveyed, 31 percent work in the City; 56 percent do not work in the City and 12.8 percent do not work or are retired. Nearly 42 percent of those surveyed have lived in the City for 20 years or more; 32.8 percent for ten to 20 years; 12.2 percent for five to ten years and 12.1 percent less than five years.

“Our City places a high priority on creating and maintaining a high quality of life for our residents and our business community. It is gratifying to see that we are succeeding in helping to create a community that is satisfying to those who live and work here,” commented Mayor Bob Kellar.

The complete 2016 public opinion poll is available on the City’s website at www.santa-clarita.com.