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Poll Finds Majority of Americans Opposed to Development
Americans are twice as likely to oppose new real estate projects as support them, according to a recent survey by the Saint Consulting Group in Hingham, Mass.
Based on interviews with 1,000 people across the country, the survey found that opposition is likelier to be against quarries, casinos, land-fills and big-box retail than against single-family homes and groceries.
Those polled said they were most likely to be opposed because of concerns over traffic and quality of life issues. They also indicated that they would use the political process to protect their neighborhoods from unwanted development, and virtually all development fell into that category.
“Rather than seeing growth and development as the time-honored stimulus to local and regional economies, the 21st-century issue is about who controls growth and development,” said Patrick Fox, the company’s president.
“Our survey shows that the American public is more sophisticated about planning and zoning than we thought,” he said. “The most staggering number to me is that one in five families has actively opposed a project.”
“The question that developers will need to address in 2006 is: Where are businesses to locate and build the structures for future jobs, if 83% of citizens like their neighborhoods exactly as they are?” he said.
“By inference, competitive opposition to other developers’ projects will be contested in far more sophisticated ways in the future,” Fox said. “If all politics is local, The Saint Index confirms that all land use has become political. It has become an adversarial system being played out. What this means to developers is that traditionally business-oriented political leaders may no longer automatically favor all development projects.
Fox’s company, which specializes in the politics of contested neighborhood projects, started up the index to come up with insights that will benefit companies that want to understand the source of opposition against them and what they can do to get more projects approved.
The survey was conducted last October and November by the Center for Economic and Civic Opinion, University of Massachusetts/Lowell. Surveys for The Saint Index will be conducted annually in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
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