Mayor Heidi Harmon Case Study
Heidi Harmon, Mayor of San Luis Obispo, was looking for new ways to enable citizens to contribute ideas and concerns in a constructive way. Although she has a strong social media presence, she wanted to cast the net more widely to include the voices of people from across the community.
“It’s important people feel meaningfully heard,” Harmon said.
The issue of housing affordability is ever-present in the city, which has the dubious title of fifth most expensive in the United States. Mayor Harmon wanted to understand if people felt development was positive for reducing housing costs. She also wanted to see if people were open to rent control and changes to zoning to make it easier to obtain permits for tiny homes.
In October 2017, the Poll Town team visited SLO and ran a week-long online poll to find out what people think about development, rent control and tiny home permits as ways to make homes more affordable.
The poll appeared on Mayor Harmon’s website, the KSBY website and was promoted heavily through social media. A total of 1,349 people participated and the results were evenly split on the question of development.
The main reason chosen by the 126 people who said No was that “Development adds to overcrowding,” and 124 said “We need to keep our open spaces!”
One hundred and forty of those who agreed development can help affordable housing chose the reason “The middle class cannot afford to buy,” and 135 selected “It’s not a full solution in itself but it is part of one,” while 130 supported the reason “We need low income housing.”
There were 135 participants that agreed with the comment “We need more housing below the $400,000 range,” and 123 agreed that “We’re not getting the right kind of affordable developments.”
The results showed mixed feelings about development as the panacea to affordable housing. Response to rent control was equally lukewarm.
However, there was good news for the sustainability-minded, with tiny homes receiving strong support.
“The poll results confirm my understanding there is a deep concern for the quality of life in the town. This means that while folks want to create affordability, they don’t want to destroy the way of life,” Harmon said.
She said she is already taking the insights into meetings where decisions are being made to ensure housing development must have the community benefit of affordability.
“I want to consider ways we can put policy-based parameters on home cost and rental. I also intend to work closely with Cal Poly, as many participants cited student housing having an impact on supply,” Harmon said.
Mayor Harmon applauded the high response rate from citizens, which was five times that of similar online feedback tools used in the city.
“Everyone deserves a chance to be heard. Even when not everyone will get what they want, it’s important there are alternative channels for engagement for those unable to attend council meetings,” Harmon said.
The poll earned favorable comments from citizens, such as this one:
Visit polltown.com to make your own report, or to download any of the reports featured in this case study.
