INTERIM RESULTS OF OTATARA COMMUNITY GROUP – OTATARA RESIDENTS SURVEY JUNE 2008.

SUMMARY:
These results are interim, to give a broad indication of the information gathered from the completed questionnaires. Further analysis needs to be done. As that work is completed, results will be posted on our website: www.RD9.co.nz. It has been some time since the survey was undertaken so the Otatara Community Group Committee think it is important to get these preliminary results into the Public Arena. We would like to thank all those people who took the time to complete the questionnaire, the 4 Square Shop for allowing us to have a return box there, and Mr Ron Gilson for his dedicated work in printing the questionnaires off for us, on his home printer.

Two hundred and fifty five completed questionnaires were received. Not every respondent answered every question.

Survey respondents from the 51+ age group are over-represented compared to their proportion of the Otatara population.  The 30 and under age group is under-represented in our respondents.

57% of our respondents have lived here for 10+ years.

CAUTIONS:
There are a few things to remember when reading the answers to the open-ended questions. Just because only one person said something – doesn’t mean that others would not agree. Similarly for any of the responses, there may be more people that disagree than agree. This is the nature of open-ended survey questions. These answers give an indication of the types of things that are upper-most in people’s minds, but more work is needed to determine how widespread some of these beliefs/issues/concerns are.

To summarise:
The 10 most frequently mentioned reasons that people said they choose to live in Otatara are:

	Reason	Number of People
1	The Bush	150
2.	Quiet/Peaceful/Tranquil	128
3.	Birdlife	92
4.	Privacy	83
5	Close to Invercargill	79
6.	Large Sections	74
7	Open Space	51
8	Semi-Rural	42
9=	Rural Outlook	36
9=	Close to Beach	36

 

The 10 most frequently mentioned changes that people said would improve Otatara are:
N.B. There is much less consistency in opinions here

	Improvement	Number of People
1.	Slow down Traffic	41
2.	Public Transport System	30
3.	None, Fine as it is	29
4.	More planting of native species	24
5=	Minimum section size – 1 acre sections	22
5=	Better recycling	22
7	Close Drainage Ditches	19
8	Roundabout Marama Ave/Dunns Road intersection	16
9	Look after existing bush	14
10	Reticulated water supply	13

Q3 The 10 most frequently mentioned changes that people said would detract from Otatara are:
N.B. There is again less consistency than in Question 1 but more than Question 2, in opinions here

	Detraction	Number of People
1.	High density housing/small sections	106
2.	Commercial properties/development	88
3.	Street lighting	50
4.	Cutting Down Native Bush	43
5.	Industrial Development	35
6.	Footpaths	29
7.	Make Otatara look urban	23
8.	More Subdivision	22
9.	Too much Commercial Development	18
10.	More traffic	16

Q4 Commercial Development in Otatara – Do we need more?

Answer	Number
Yes	41
No	143
Maybe	70
Not Answered	1

Thirty one people made no comments in relation to why they opposed more commercial development or thought it may be ok.

 

Q4 The 3 most frequently mentioned reasons for stating more Commercial Development is NOT needed

Reason	Number
Not needed Invercargill is very close	67
What we have is sufficient	25
Detract from rural feel of Otatara	21

Q4 The 3 most frequently mentioned Caveats from People who said “Maybe” more Commercial Development is needed. (N.B – some of these people said “maybe” because they supported only certain types of commercial development such as a Childcare Centre or Rest Home, Home Based Businesses or a Petrol Outlet).

Caveat	Number
Must be sensitive to the Environment	13
Depends on what it is and where it is	8
Only want business that enhances the community	8
Required by Otatara residents not at whim of developers	8

Q5 The 10 most frequently mentioned types of Commercial Development that Respondents thought was/may be appropriate for Otatara.

	Commercial Activity	Number
1.	Childcare Facilities	36
2	Retirement Home/Elderly/Disability Care (Could be home based)	18
3	Cafes	19
4	Home based businesses	16
5=	Petrol Outlet	15
5=	Medical Services	15
7	Arts & Crafts	14
8	Hair Salon	10
9=	Bars	7
9=	Restaurants	7

Q6 – The numbers of those that think where commercial development should go should be decided on a case-by-case basis versus a specific site.
The people who answered “Yes” or “Maybe” to more commercial development were also asked to respond to whether they thought:
(i) where commercial activity occurs should be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the effects of the activity, OR
(ii) there should be a specific area in Otatara where new commercial activity occurs.

Fifty six people ticked that where commercial activity occurs should be decided on a case-by-case basis and 49 ticked that there should be a specific area for commercial development.

Q6 For those that chose a specific area for Commercial development – where should that be? (Only 4 areas were nominated by more than 1 respondent).

	Area favoured for any Commercial Development	Number
1.	Marama Ave South	18
2.	Dunns Road/Marama Ave Corner	17
3.	Dunns Road around existing businesses	11
4.	Dunns Road (not specific)	8

Demographic Results:
Age Breakdown of Respondents:

qry10Summary
Surveys	Under20	20-30	31-40	41-50	51-60	61-70	70+
# Survey Respondents	2	2	43	63	74	47	24
Rounded % respondents	1	1	17	25	29	18	9
Otatara Popn %	10-19 yr olds 16%	7	16	19	13	10

The survey is under-representative of people aged 30 & under. It is about right for people aged 31-40 and it is over-represented with people aged in the 51+ categories.

Breakdown of how long respondents have lived in Otatara:

qryQ8Summary
Length of Time	Number of Respondents
1 to 6 Month	7
6 Months to 1 Year	9
1 to 2 Years	21
2 to 3 Years	10
3 to 4 Years	8
4 to 5 Years	13
5 to 10 Years	40
10 to 15 Years	30
15 to 20 Years	37
> 20 Years	76

N.B The above table does not add up to 255 respondents.