Although results of a recent survey of Peachtree City residents are still being processed, some of the data has been released culled from the approximately 500 persons who responded ... accounting for half the total surveys mailed out.

Among the more interesting tidbits:

• Only 7 percent of respondents indicated the city’s future growth should come from annexation. 54 percent of respondents said they would rather the city not grow at all, and 39 percent said they prefer continuing residential growth until buildout;

• Two-thirds of respondents said they would either never use alternate transportation such as a bus, trolley, light rail or car pool (23 percent) or would not be a regular user of alternate transportation (43 percent).

• 17 percent said they use the city’s golf cart path to get to work, with nearly 90 percent of those trips being on a golf cart. Of their household’s total trips within the city, 25 percent were on the cart path system.

• 29 percent said they work in Peachtree City and 21 percent reported they are retired.

• 70 percent said crime was a problem but not a major one, while 23 percent said it was not a problem and 7 percent said it was a major problem.

The survey was developed by the city’s all-volunteer Comprehensive Plan Committee, which is helping prepare the city’s long-term growth plan. There was no input from consultants, but the questions themselves were hashed out between city planning staff and several committee members.

Just over 1,000 surveys were mailed out and the city got back about 500 surveys, which is a fantastic number, said Elizabeth Keysar, a committee member who is parsing the survey data and made a recent presentation to the City Council. The data does not include results from persons who filled out the survey online, but Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford said she thought that would be a great task for an intern to handle.

When talking about the responses to the crime question, Rutherford said she wasn’t surprised as some seniors don’t feel safe on the golf cart paths.

“I will tell you there are areas where I will not go on a golf cart path now,” Rutherford said.

Keysar cautioned that the survey didn’t include as many respondents as she would have liked from several demographics, including the younger 18-25 year old group and renters. Also, respondents tended to skew into the higher household income brackets, she noted.

If the survey had targeted children ages 15-18, the golf cart path usage figures would have soared, noted Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett, “because they use it all the time.”

Roughly half of the respondents reported household incomes of $100,000 or more, with another 22 percent reporting a household income between $50,000 and $69,999.

Though some 18 percent of the mailed surveys were sent specifically to persons renting their residence, relatively few of those surveys were returned, Keysar said. All of the surveys were sent to a specific individual in hopes of getting a response, she added.