Iowa City survey finds support for more downtown retailers, dissatisfaction with parking

IOWA CITY – Iowa City residents and business people want more retail stores downtown, a survey released Thursday has found, offering support for one of the city's biggest priorities.

At the same time, parking, a frequent target of criticism in downtown in particular, received the lowest marks among city services, with only 53 percent of citizens saying they were very satisfied or satisfied.

The City Council earlier this year hired the Thomas Group, based in Iowa City, to survey citizens and businesses as part of a strategic planning process.

The city also hired the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Iowa to use those survey results as background information and hold focus groups with city officials to identify and prioritize goals for the next two to four years and develop strategies to meet those goals. That work is still to come.

The citizen survey included 380 registered voters spread throughout the city and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. The 50 business participants were either owners or managers in a range of fields.

Of the residents who responded, 57 percent said they were very supportive or supportive of increasing the number of retail businesses downtown. The city and downtown leaders have been taking steps toward making that happen, and a study has been commissioned to give them data to help achieve that goal.

However, “many” respondents commented that they felt it was too late for downtown Iowa City to be revitalized and that Coralville had already captured the market, according to the survey.

Chicago-to-Iowa City passenger rail service and adding owner-occupied housing downtown received less support, at 48 percent and 33 percent respectively.

Business representatives also favored adding more retail downtown, with the average response ranking it as “important.”

Their comments included the need for lower rents downtown, a more pro-business attitude from city government and being proactive in developing business areas.

In terms of resident satisfaction, garbage removal, housing assistance, local bus service, the public library and water/sewer services received 100 percent responses of very satisfied or satisfied. The lowest level of satisfaction was with parking, planning and zoning and snow removal.

The serviced deemed most important by citizens were fire protection, police protection and water/sewer services The least important were the airport, leaf removal and housing assistance programs.

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here to see the survey.