Residents Want Leaders Focused on Improving Tax Base

Long-term planning is a collaborative process, and city leaders gathered feedback from residents to gauge their vision for Brookfield’s future.

In April 2012, the city sent a survey to residents seeking feedback on Brookfield’s vision for its 2035 Comprehensive Plan. A total of 1,808 residents responded, and helped paint a picture for the city’s priorities.

In terms of the local economy, residents cited business development and promotion as a high priority moving forward. Residents want to see further redevelopment of commercial areas in order to increase the tax base.

“Given the city’s large tax base, it is not surprising that citizens cited maintaining a tax base to provide high level services as a priority,” the survey report read.

Roughly 84 percent of housing in the city is owner-occupied, and just over 80 percent are single-family homes with an average value of $290,000. Homeowners account for a significant portion of the tax base, and those residents don’t want to see an expansion in the variety of housing options in the city.

The city’s comprehensive plan calls for an expansion in the variety of housing options, as the Builders Association has noted Brookfield lacks housing units priced under $200,000. However, survey respondents rated “increasing housing options” as a 4.1 out of a 10-point scale. But increasing housing options for the elderly rated fared much better scoring 5.7 out of 10.

On the education front, residents feel creating lifelong learning opportunities in the city must be a top priority. Continued focus on schools will be a priority for the city, and expanding learning opportunities for adults is also a focus of the plan.

That last section of the survey that garnered strong support was improving traffic in the city. Residents rated improved traffic with a score of 7.3 out 10. However, residents want to see traffic improved while also discouraging high traffic volumes and high traffic speeds in residential areas.

The 2035 Comprehensive Plan survey is just one of many tools city leaders will use to better assess the needs and direction of Brookfield’s future.