POLCO, a civic communication and analytics program, working with the National Community Survey (NCS) found that Milford residents feel safety, economy and recreation are some of the top benchmarks that provide quality of living in the city. The survey, conducted from February 6 to March 20, was initially sent to 3,000 randomly selected households, while all households in Milford were encouraged to participate online.
“The NCS focuses on the livability of Milford by categorizing survey questions into ten main facets of community livability. These facets have been identified through extensive survey research as those that are most impactful to residents’ quality of life, Brandon Barnett of POLCO said. “The NCS includes items within each of these ten facets to provide a full picture of how residents feel about their community. Finally, these facets also tend to align with municipal departments, making it easy for city staff to quickly find the information that is most important to [residents] in the final report of results. This was the fourth time conducting the NCS for Milford, and all households which were eligible to participate in the survey.”
The first slide shown by Barnett had residents rank the quality of the ten benchmarks, which included safety, natural environment, health and wellness, economy, parks and recreation along with utilities, inclusivity and engagement, community design, education, arts and culture plus mobility. POLCO then compared those results with national benchmarks.
“Milford residents ranked the quality of safety at 62 percent; the natural environment at 59 percent, health and wellness at 55 percent while the economy along with parks and recreation were at 54 percent,” Barnett said. “Safety, natural environment, health and wellness, parks and recreation, utilities along with education, arts and culture had quality lower than national benchmarks.”
This indicates that residents feel the quality of those facets could be better in Milford than residents feel about their communities nationally.
“The second question asked about the same facets of livability, but is centered on how important residents think it is for the community to focus on each facet in the coming two years,” So we ask about both the quality and the importance of each of these facets, and we use those answers to create the quality importance gap chart, which we’ll see on the next slide.”
Of the respondents, 92 percent felt that utilities were important for livability, followed by the economy at 91 percent, safety at 88 percent, health and wellness at 85 percent, natural environment at 79 percent, education arts and culture at 78 percent with community design and parks and recreation tied at 77 percent. Inclusivity and engagement was at 72 percent and mobility at 71 percent at essential or very important. These percentages were similar to national benchmarks.
“The next set of data can help determine which areas are of relatively higher importance and lower quality to risk. This chart is one of many ways to interpret your data, Barnett said. “It can be used to identify key findings and help a community determine which areas may need additional focus or resource allocation.”
Barnett pointed out that some several were similar to the national benchmark, including 88 percent feeling safe in their neighborhood as well as in the commercial downtown area. Areas that showed the largest gap in importance and quality were open space, public places where people want to spend time, fitness opportunities, drinking water and K through 12 education. According to Barnett, this indicates that although those facets were important, the quality or availability of open space, public places, fitness water and education were not perceived highly.
“Moving down to the highlights of our findings, I do want to point to a few items that stood out. The first four key findings was a Milford quality of life where seven out of ten rated Milford as a positive place to live,” Barnett said. “About two-thirds plan to remain in the city for the next five years. They would also recommend Milford as a place to live if somone asked. All these ratings were similar to the national benchmarks and remain relatively stable from the previous survey held.”
Barnett continued, stating that more than half of residents rated the overall feeling of safety in Milford as excellent or good security regarding property crime had has increased significantly since the last survey, from 63% in 2022 to 73% in 2025
“The next of our key findings was that Milford’s economic health is important to residents. And overall economic health is considered excellent or good by more than half of residents showing an improvement compared to previous surveys.”
The survey found that the majority of the respondents felt there was a good variety of business and service establishments. However, employment opportunities declined from the last survey, they still remain on par with the national trends. The vibrancy of the downtown commercial area, cost of living and shopping opportunities all remain consistent with the previous survey.
“The next finding was that residents feel the natural environment as well as opportunities for parks and recreation could improve,” Barnett said. “Cleanliness received 67 percent, air quality 66 percent, yard waste pick up 64 percent, recycling 63 percent, water resources 51 percent, the amount of open space 42 perent and preservation of natural areas 43 percent. All except the amount of open space and preservation of natural areas were similar to national benchmarks while those were rated lower.”
The survey found that residents did not feel Milford offered enough in the way of parks and recreation. The availability of city parks ranked 52 percent, the availability of paths and walking rails at 45 percent, recreation centers or facilities, 44 percent, recreation programs or classes, 42 percent, fitness opportunities, 40 percent and recreational opportunities, 38 percent, all lower than national benchmarks.
“Respondents overwhelmingly felt more parsk and playgrounds were essential, very or somewhat important as were bike trails, pedestrian paths, hardcourt sports, turf or softcourt sports, swimming, splash pads and amphitheater and a skate park,” Barnett said. “Some residents felt an indoor recreation facility would be beneficial while 19 percent were somewhat opposed to that.”
The final benchmark was mobility.
“Finally, mobility is an area of focus for the city with ease of travel by car is the highest rated category, at 72 percent. The ease of public parking also saw positive ratings at 57 percent, both above the national average. Ease of walking and traffic flow on major streets fell behind from the previous surveys, with about half of residents giving positive ratings,” Barnett said. “About three in ten residents gave less than favorable ratings towards ease of travel by public transportation and ease of travel by bicycle with the latter item, falling below other services stand out for their previous positive ratings.”
Barnett explained that items like snow removal, traffic enforcement and street lighting showed a statistically significant upward trend from the 2022 survey while public transit services and sidewalk maintenance both saw declines from the previous survey. In addition, the city added a question related to retail marijuana sales with responses seeming to support such businesses in Milford with 57 percent stating they were very or somewhat supportive. Only 43 percent were somewhat or strongly opposed.
After Barnett’s presentation, council was provided an opportunity to ask additional questions, but there were none. The city will now use the survey responses for planning purposes.
