Survey says: trash hauler near top of to-do list for North Wales

 The data is in, and the results will lead to plenty of discussion.

Council members saw a preview last week of survey data asking residents what they’d like to see in an update to the town’s comprehensive plan.

“Over 50 percent supported, interestingly enough, studying a single trash hauler, and there should be a recycling cost/benefit analysis,” said councilman Mark Tarlecki.

Last fall borough the town and its planning commission sent out a resident survey asking for feedback on an update to the ‘North Wales 2040’ comprehensive plan adopted in 2018 after a series of public input meetings over the prior two years. Since the 2040 plan was adopted in September 2018, council and the planning commission have taken up several of its recommendations.

Several projects mentioned in the plan are also in progress: renovations are now nearly complete at a borough-owned former church and office building on Main Street that will be modernized into a rentable space for use by local nonprofits and for community events, while residents have started talks on how to revive the borough’s business alliance, and ways it could recommend incentives for attracting businesses to town.

Council members took a first look at those survey responses on Tuesday night, as Tarlecki — the council liaison to the planning commission — and borough manager Christine Hart broke down the four categories of the survey’s questions, and the responses and rankings provided by those who answered.

“The four main areas that we highlighted were: ‘Community character’ ranking — that’s basically open space, the elementary school playground project, recreational programming, our community garden program, and a park tree survey,” Tarlecki said.

Based on a sample size of 121 residents who responded to the survey, 27 respondents ranked “prepare maintenance and stewardship plans for borough parks” as their top priority, followed by 19 who preferred completing a park tree inventory, then 14 who prioritized enhancing recreational classes and events, followed by eight who chose improving the town’s promotion of state or county programs.

Lower-priority responses included studying a possible pocket park near the boroughs’ library, creating and promoting a community garden program, using elementary school open space as a recreational amenity, pursuing grant funding for a historic resource inventory, conducting accessibility audits for each park, and publishing a park guide.

In the economic development category, fewer entries were listed, with a clearer response: studying the Main Street streetscape and preparing design standards was ranked the top priority by 47 respondents, followed by collaborating with the business community with 30, then only six responses that ranked creating a wayfinding signage system, and four for studying the costs and benefits of parking meters on Main Street, as top priorities.

“Wayfinding and street sign systems, that had less than 50 percent support, meaning directional signs. Installing parking meters on the Main Street, that means doing a cost-benefit analysis. We’ve had that discussion before, and we’ll see how that plays out,” Tarlecki said.

Under the transportation category, those surveyed gave a tie: 34 votes each went to ranking a walkability audit with targeted sidewalk improvements, and conducting a traffics study with implementing traffic calming strategies; ranked lower were drafting a bicycle plan and using it to create a formal bike route network, and conducting a transit facility study of bus stops and train station areas, and implementing the findings.

“We also included Lyft and Uber stations, where people can be picked up at the train station,” as part of what the study would examine, Tarlecki said.

And in the sustainability section, studying a single trash hauler topped all ideas with a total of 42 votes, followed by promoting yard waste collecting, promoting composting, studying green stormwater projects, then conducting a street tree inventory.

“These will be the areas that we’re going to focus on, on how to redraft that update for the comprehensive plan,” Tarlecki said.

    Slide showing survey data on ‘sustainability and resilience’ projects in an update to North Wales borough’s comprehensive plan, as shown during their Feb.11, 2025 meeting. (Credit: North Wales Borough)
  

Borough Manager Christine Hart added that the planning commission had discussed doing further surveys to get more feedback, but “there’s such a wide margin on the number ones” and a wide enough gap between the survey answers that more feedback may not change the results, and any further plans or projects will get plenty of public input first.

“The planning commission is only a board that can make recommendations. Public input, and council, have to ultimately adopt the new plan,” she said.

Mayor Neil McDevitt said he was most interested in a comparison of which items had increased in priority since the earlier version of the plan, such as developing the elementary school space and publishing a parks guide, and those that dropped off including promoting county programs and the park tree inventory.

Tarlecki answered that the planning commission has already begun discussing the demographics of those who replied, specifically the ages and the length of time they’ve lived in town.

“There was a substantial percentage of people who were long-term residents in this — not necessarily a majority, but substantial,” Tarlecki said.

Talks on the survey data will continue at the planning commission’s next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 5; borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 25, both at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

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