Birmingham community survey questions set

By Grace Lovins

A portion of Birmingham’s residents will soon be getting a community survey in the mail after city commissioners approved the final draft of the survey questions during the Monday, April 27, meeting.

The city has been working to develop a community survey since September 2025 when they approved an agreement with Cobalt Community Research to help create and conduct the survey. Written in a memorandum included in the meeting packet, assistant city manager Melissa Fairbairn said that the purpose of the survey is to collect data to inform future policy and budget decisions.

To develop this survey, Fairbairn said the consultants have been working with city staff as well as a workgroup composed of two city commissioners, two community members, and members of the city staff from the city managers’ office, communications department, finance department and planning department.

Questions included in the survey cover topics like residents’ experiences with the city’s roads and pathways, parking, parks and recreation programs and facilities, community events as well as their priorities outside of core municipal services.

Fairbairn explained that the next step is to have the consultant review the survey for spelling, spacing errors and the like before being sent out to a random sample of 2,000 residents. Commissioners agreed that the latest draft was an improvement from their last review, and they are content to move forward to distribution.

With little discussion, the commission voted 6-0 to approve the survey questions.