Charlottesville residents see education improvement, lower crime and more affordable housing as major goals for the city to tackle, but University growth did not rank highly on a new survey conducted by the University.
A telephone survey of 1,075 Charlottesville residents by the Center for Survey Research found 40.2 percent of the respondents feel it is very important to keep "future growth of [the] University on or near U.Va. Grounds." Out of 23 goals, containing University growth ranked 22nd.
Despite the low ranking, City Council still is concerned by the University's sprawling boundaries, Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati said. "It is important to enhance the quality of life for our residents," Caravati said. "We want the University to build on campus."
Councilor David Toscano said vocal citizen groups often complain about University growth.
"Growth didn't show up as a strong concern on the survey, yet it often comes up at Council," Toscano said. "It may be that people have concluded that there is little the city can do to keep University growth on Grounds."
He said he did feel that the survey results were informative and important because they allow Council to know how the silent majority feels.
The survey reported that Charlottesville residents are strongly in favor of the goal to "improve quality of education in schools." A majority of 86 percent said it was "very important."
The city's strong effort to improve education can be seen in the fact it spends more money per student than any other locality in the Commonwealth, Toscano said. The city's last major survey, conducted in 1993, also found that citizens' top goal was to improve education.
The survey also asked respondents what they felt about "Doing more to maintain the neighborhood's rental properties." The survey found that housing goal to be a top priority, garnering 49.96 percent of respondents to rank it "very important."
Other issues the survey identified as important to residents included increasing home ownership in the city and making neighborhoods and streets safer. Respondents in the south section of Charlottesville were much more likely to feel less safe than those in other areas of the city.
A possible shortcoming of the survey is that it was conducted over the summer when most students were not in town.
Thomas Guterbock, director of the Center for Survey Research, said there are differences in the opinions of students and long-term city residents, but it is unknown how students' input might have affected the survey results.
The survey was conducted by the Center for Survey Research at the request of City Council and the city manager. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.0 percent.
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