Folsom community survey summary
City of Folsom’s Central Business District Revitalization Project
Community Questionnaire Summary
Introduction
From December 12th to December 31st the City of Folsom released an online community questionnaire to collect early community input on desired improvements within the Folsom Central Business District. This input will inform the ongoing Central Business Master Plan and revitalization efforts.
Project Overview
The City of Folsom is developing an area Master Plan focused on revitalizing its aging and centrally located business district. The district is along East Bidwell Street and Riley Streets between Sutter Middle School to Blue Ravine Road; north of Lembi Park. The Central Business District is an important retail and commercial corridor that is located along East Bidwell Street from Riley Street to Blue Ravine. The master plan focuses on Urban Design/Placemaking, Economic Development, and Mobility Planning. Public outreach and engagement is an integral component of the planning process.
Questionnaire Purpose and Format
The online community questionnaire consisted of 14 questions exploring how often and why community members/visitors go to the District, what they would like to see remain, improve, and remove from the District, as well as specific concepts around housing, mobility, and other amenities.
Data Summary: (the published summary included all data on all 14 questions but for redundancy reasons I have included only question 1)
The questionnaire was taken by 821 individuals. The data was taken from Survey Monkey and comprised of graphs that summarized the individual results. Both the graphs and summarized write-in answers are provided below. Full responses are included in Appendix A – I
Question 1: Why do you usually visit the Central Business District area (Select all that apply): Employment, Recreation, Dining or Shopping, Entertainment, Personal services, Visit public parks, Community events, Children’s activities, Other (please specify)
Results:
Dining or shopping 84%
Personal services 43%
Recreation 35%
Visit public parks 33%
Entertainment 21%
Community events 18%
Children’s activities 16%
Employment 10%
Other (please specify) 9%
Other comments included – 73 total additional comments
Live in Central Business District/ Live nearby/ Visit friends that live there (15)
Gym/ Recreation (14)
Middle School (9)
Driving or passing through (7)
Don’t currently visit (6)
Many respondents stated their visits to the Central Business District were for shopping and/or dining and personal services (DMV, Post Office, etc.). However, there was a significant dispersion of other reasons for visiting the District.
Public Awareness Campaign:
Pop-Up Event:
On December 16th, 2023, from 8:00 am to 11:00 am the city’s consulting team tabled outside Karen’s Bakery during the establishment’s peak visiting hours. The purpose of the pop-up workshop was to build awareness about the Master Planning effort, to encourage participation with the online community questionnaire, and to receive feedback on the uses/amenities residents and visitors would like to see in the District and their ideas on creating a unique identity or sense of place for the District. At the pop-up, the team members conversed with community members about the project and encouraged them to take the online survey and interact with project sticker boards. Participants were handed a survey card that had a direct QR code link for them to scan with their phone or enter the link on the web.
Approximately 75 individuals interacted with team members and 113 stickers were placed overall on the interactive boards.
On that same morning, a project team member attended the Historic Folsom Farmers Market. From 9:00 am to 10:30 am the project member directly interacted with about 50 residents of Folsom and surrounding areas. Dozens of survey cards were delivered to constituents during conversations and a few community members took the survey immediately with the guidance of the project team member.
Pop-Up Feedback
At the pop-up, there were two interactive boards with highlighted questions from the survey. Participants were able to answer the questions with sicker dots to give their input. Please find the board feedback below.
What uses/ amenities would you like to see expanded or created in the project area?
Entertainment 4 stickers
Restaurants 13 stickers
Public gathering spaces 14 stickers
Public art 11 stickers
Play areas for children 3 stickers
Housing options 4 stickers
Landscaping and greenspaces 10 stickers
Mixed-use buildings 5 stickers
Special events 2 stickers
What ideas could support the area as a ‘destination’ with a unique identity and ‘sense of place’?
Create Civic Center or “heart” of the area 2 stickers
Enhance public art 5 stickers
Themed urban landscape 13 stickers
Community events 10 stickers
Local artisan/craft establishments 7 stickers
Classic car shows 1 sticker
Flea Markets 6 stickers
Pop-up food courts 3 stickers
Tournaments 0 stickers
Flyer Delivery
On December 21st, 2023 two project team members visited the Central Business District project area to educate and inform business owners and employees about the project goals and survey. Fifty businesses within the Central Business District were visited. At each location, team members spoke about the project with business representatives, leaving behind survey flyers and cards. The purpose of the site visit was to get constituents who directly work in or own a business in the Central Business District to interact with the survey.
Targeted Social Posts
One boosted social media graphic with links to the survey was put out, targeting constituents living in or near Folsom. The purpose of the boosted post was to get people living in the City of Folsom informed of the survey and project. The boosted post ran for one week during the survey activation, reaching 5,228 Facebook users and 712 people engaged with the post.
