A recently released survey indicates Flower Mound residents rank town service levels with overwhelmingly positive performance ratings, experience a high quality of life, and view the community as an excellent or good place to live and raise children.

The November 2011 survey released this week also revealed an increase in resident satisfaction regarding the town's transportation and traffic flow improvements, employment opportunities, and the new solid waste and recycling program.

When compared to ratings given by residents in other communities across the nation of a similar population, respondents gave higher or much higher ratings to each aspect of quality of life in Flower Mound.

Thirteen of the 16 community characteristics asked about on the survey received “excellent” or “good” by at least half of respondents. Eight of the 15 characteristics that could be compared to the national were ranked higher or much higher than the national benchmark.

Of the 23 individual town services surveyed, 17 received “excellent” or “good” ratings from three-quarters of respondents and twenty received ratings that were above or much above the national benchmark.

Results also indicate residents ranked Flower Mound highest among survey cities in several categories, including percentage of citizens who visit their municipality’s website, recommend their neighborhood as a place to live, are safe from violent crime, and had a positive experience when interacting with a town employee.

Residents also rank Flower Mound in the top three survey cities in approval ratings of a place to live and raise children, overall quality of life, fire service levels, ambulance or emergency medical services, municipal courts, garbage collection, recreation facilities, and safety from property crimes.

“We are pleased the survey results affirm the town's commitment to quality and appreciate the survey participants who took the time to provide their honest feedback,” said Flower Mound Mayor Melissa Northern.

“While we know Flower Mound is a great place to live, work, shop, and play, it is always encouraging to receive such positive results and to note the areas where we have improved since the previous survey conducted in 2009.  Council and staff will utilize survey results to continue improving service levels and for future programming, facility, and policy planning efforts.”

Mailed to 3,000 randomly selected Flower Mound Households in November 2011, the survey received a response rate of 36 percent, resulting in the receipt of 1,064 completed surveys. All data was mathematically weighted by gender, age, and housing tenure, and scientifically analyzed to produce statistically-significant results representing the entire community, town officials said.

Topics included quality of life and community, safety in Flower Mound, town services and government, government performance, and interest in new projects.

Survey respondents ranked traffic, transportation, and growth as the biggest issues facing the town over the next several years. The survey also permitted residents to provide feedback to the town on what is working well and what is not and share their priorities for community planning and resource allocation.

The survey statistics also indicated a decrease in library usage but an overall high approval rating of library services. The Flower Mound Public Library staff is in the process of developing a Master Plan, which includes an increase in adult services.

See a snapshot of the survey results here.