OPA survey shows high community satisfaction

 
(Dec. 13, 2021) Overall satisfaction, what is most important to property owners, core values, and feedback on key issues were top goals for a recent community survey, according to Strategic Planning Committee Co-Chairperson Bernie McGorry.
 
McGorry, in a presentation to the Ocean Pines Board on Dec. 11, said the survey concluded in November and included 1,838 respondents. Of those, 1,127 or 61.3% were full-time resident homeowners, while 684 (37.2%) were part-time owners. A majority, 51.9%, were female. 
 
He said the committee was thrilled with the engagement and response of the community, adding some national polls only include 1,000 responses. The Ocean Pines survey, he said, nearly doubled the goal for responses. 
 
McGorry said roughly 65 of the surveys were paper copies and the rest were completed online.
 
He said most of the survey respondents were 51-80 years of age, which is likely similar to the median age of homeowners.
 
McGorry said those polled were happy with the community as a whole, with 95.2% either somewhat satisfied, very satisfied, or extremely satisfied being a property owner.
 
"You hear things on social media but, overall, Ocean Pines residents are very satisfied and they're very likely to recommend Ocean Pines to others," he said. "My overall takeaway is ... Ocean Pines residents are very happy, in general." 
 
Additionally, he said 83% were likely to recommend Ocean Pines as a place to live. 
 
McGorry said homeowners singled out three issues as most important to them. He said 95.2% percent said safety is either very important or extremely important, while 94.2% said the same about maintenance of infrastructure, and 89.8% said the same about community appearance and aesthetics.
 
As for how Ocean Pines is currently handling those issues, McGorry said safety rated "slightly above expectations" (3.83 out of 5), while maintenance of infrastructure (2.78) and community appearance (3.16) roughly met expectations.
 
"In general, we're doing pretty good," he said, adding maintenance of infrastructure had the largest gap between importance and level of satisfaction.
 
"We have a 50-year-old community [and] there's a lot of work to be done with drainage and road maintenance, bridge maintenance [and] bulkheads," he said. "That was the biggest gap ... the difference between what was important and whether people were satisfied with how we're doing."
 
What that means going forward, McGorry said, is likely a committee recommendation that Ocean Pines "continue to invest heavily in infrastructure."
 
On core values, McGorry said all four core values listed in the survey rated highly. Integrity rated at the top (86.4% answering “very important” or “extremely important”), followed by accountability (82.2%), collaboration (76.3%) and sustainability (74%).
 
On top issues and challenges facing the community, the survey found transparency between the Association and membership rated at the top (86.7% answering “very important” or “extremely important”), with infrastructure (84.5%) and the Board and GM working collaboratively (80%) rounding out the top three.
 
"The good news is, transparency and collaboration don't cost a lot of money," McGorry said. "It could be just increasing communication ... [there's] maybe slight things that could be done."
 
The survey also found that 62.5% either slightly or strongly agreed that traffic on Route 589 is a concern, while 64.7% either slightly or strongly supported electronic voting for future Board of Directors elections and referendums.
 
On electronic voting, McGorry said the average age of survey respondents – and the fact that almost all surveys were done online – suggests Association members are "pretty tech savvy." Still, he cautioned some are strongly opposed to changing ballot procedures.
 
"I would walk slowly on that and look at the whole [survey] numbers" he said. "Maybe it's a hybrid approach."
 
McGorry said there was only lukewarm support for new or improved amenities and services, with 36.2% slightly interested or extremely interested in improved walking and biking paths, 41.1% favoring a fitness center and 38.6% in support of improved street lighting.
 
“The next steps for the Strategic Planning Committee are to continue to dig further into the survey results and then share the detailed survey results with the community in a public town hall, likely in February,” McGorry said on Monday. “The community input received in this survey and the planned town hall will be critical for us to finalizing our strategic plan recommendation.” 
 
To view the presentation, visit https://youtu.be/is13uqslSEY?t=324.