UTSA survey finds residents split on PGA Village proposal
(Oct. 22, 2002)--Nearly 50 percent of area residents responding to a University of Texas at San Antonio survey say they concur with the City Council’s non-annexation agreement proposal that would enable developers to create a PGA Village over the Edwards Aquifer.
When asked their opinions about the council’s proposal, 49.7 percent of respondents either strongly agreed (15 percent) or agreed (34.6 percent). And, if the matter went to a referendum, slightly over half (50.9 percent) indicated they would vote in favor of the measure.
Forty-one percent either “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed” with the council’s non-annexation PGA proposal. Sixteen percent “strongly disagreed” with the proposal, with another 25 percent “disagreeing.” Nine percent indicated they “did not know” or had “no answer” to the question.
“Area residents opinions have changed and are now nearly divided on the issue of PGA,” said UTSA Associate Professor Arturo Vega, one of the professors whose classes were involved in the survey. “In a similar survey last spring, we found that 56 percent of respondents disagreed with the council’s decision on a special district for the PGA over the aquifer. Now, that disagreement has declined by 15 points.”
Vega added that ethnic minorities, women, individuals with lower family incomes, those who are less formally educated and both younger and older respondents tended to express more disagreement with the council’s proposal than did their more affluent, better-educated and middle-aged (30-44 years) Anglo counterparts. Republicans, conservatives and residents living outside Loop 410 were more favorable to the proposal than Democrats, Independents, liberals or people living inside of Loop 410.
Ethnic-minority respondents also indicated a greater willingness to vote against the issue if it were put to a referendum than did their Anglo counterparts.
The population sample for this survey comprised 457 people in the Bexar County area. The standard error of the entire sample is +/- 4.6 percent with a 95 percent confidence level. Survey results were weighted by sex and race/ethnicity according to 2000 Census data for Bexar County.
The annual San Antonio Survey is a probability study conducted by random phone calls and used to measure San Antonians’ attitudes about and perceptions regarding a variety of contemporary issues. Survey data were collected through UTSA’s Hispanic Research Center/Metropolitan Research and Policy Institute and the Research Lab. The telephone survey for this year was conducted October 4-14.
For more information regarding the survey, contact Juanita Firestone, UTSA professor, at (210) 458-5601; Arturo Vega, UTSA associate professor, at (210) 458-2619; or Richard J. Harris, UTSA professor, at (210) 458-5609
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UTSA survey finds residents split on PGA Village proposal
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002