Background Information

  • Sagamore Parkway is a stretch of highway in West Lafayette, Indiana.
  • In 2003, the city was interested in beautifying the Sagamore Parkway to attract more businesses.
  • In order to do this, the West Lafayette city government created the Sagamore Parkway Task Force (SPTF), defined as “a team of property owners, tenants, realtors, business leaders and city officials that will develop an economic expansion plan” for Sagamore Parkway West.
  • STATCOM at Purdue worked with the SPTF to develop two surveys; one for a random sample of 1,000 West Lafayette residents, and one for all 247 businesses along the Sagamore Parkway.
  • The SPTF held biweekly meetings which were open to the public.
  • There were a group of five STATCOM members who worked on this project.  This group will be referred to as “the STATCOM team” in this document.
  • For more detailed information on the SPTF and its findings, please go to the following link.

 

 

July 2003

  • After the initiation of email correspondence with the leader of the SPTF, the STATCOM team had an initial meeting with the client.  The following issues were discussed:

-         An introduction of the structure of the SPTF for the STATCOM team.

-         The upcoming city election.

-         The need for STATCOM to develop surveys which gauge public opinion. from West Lafayette residents and businesses on the Sagamore Parkway. 

-         A timeline for survey completion; an October 2003 deadline was recommended.

  • After this meeting, the STATCOM team developed a timeline, and presented it at an SPTF meeting.  This timeline was designed to be flexible so that it could accommodate any unforeseeable delay.
  • Upon the urging of a statistics professor, the STATCOM team attempted to contact a professor at the Restaurant Management Department so that she could assist with the restaurant-related questions on the two surveys.
  • As the questions were being developed, the STATCOM team then met with SPTF members at the West Lafayette City Hall to discuss various details about the survey.  A handout, which elicited discussion, was prepared by the STATCOM team.
  • After attending the last SPTF meeting of July, the STATCOM team modified the questions of the survey to reflect some of the issues brought up by SPTF members.

 

August 2003

  • Rough drafts of both surveys were completed for the first SPTF meeting of August.
  • After the first SPTF meeting of August, the drafts of the surveys were modified to reflect some of the issues brought up by SPTF members.
  • The STATCOM team presented the final version of the surveys at the second SPTF meeting of August.  These final drafts included questions about the use of space, traffic and pedestrian issues, development and project financing along the Sagamore Parkway.
  • After approval of the drafts by the SPTF, an independent company, which has a very thorough sampling frame based on mailing routes, selected a random sample for the resident survey.

 

 

September 2003

  • The resident survey was distributed on September 8
  •  In order to increase public awareness of this survey, a press release from the city government of West Lafayette advertised the survey to the public.
  • An Excel template, with instructions for data entry, was created to send to the West Lafayette City Office of Development so that they could enter the results of the survey in duplicate.
  • The STATCOM team attended both SPTF meetings in September to discuss the progress of the surveys.

 

 

October 2003

  • Results of the resident survey were received through October 3. There were 203 returned surveys, yielding an approximate 20% response rate. 
  • The STATCOM report on the resident survey was submitted to the SPTF on October 8.
  • A formal presentation of the results for the resident survey was given to the SPTF on October 8.  In short, the survey results showed that residents approve of using city funding to create financial incentives for improvements along Sagamore Parkway.
  • The business survey was distributed on October 9.
  • Results of the business survey were received through October 22.  There were 75 returned surveys, which is approximately a 31% response rate. 

 

 

 

November 2003

  • The STATCOM report on the business survey was submitted to the SPTF on November 12.
  • A formal presentation of the results from the business survey was given to the SPTF on November 12.  Similar to the findings of the resident survey, the business survey showed that businesses along the Sagamore Parkway thought that citywide resources should be used for development.
  • The final recommendations of the SPTF were presented at a public forum on November 19.  Specifically, the following recommendations were made:

-         The establishment of gateways at the entrances/exits of Sagamore Parkway.

-         More business signage along the parkway.

-         Additional sidewalks.

-         Improved crosswalks with countdown timers.

-         Enhanced trails network connections.

-         Continued city support for the new Sagamore West Area Business Alliance.