Toplines and trends from the 2007 Saint Index©

  • 78 percent of Americans believe there should be no new development in their hometown.
  • Opposition is up 5 percent after holding steady at 73 percent the previous two years.
  • NIMBYism transcends political party lines.
  • American’s explanations for opposing projects aren’t always the real reasons.
  • One-quarter of all Americans have opposed a development project, twice as many as have supported one (a rise from one out of five people in 2006).
  • Asked what type of new development they’d like to see in their community, one in three Americans said “none,” by far the most popular choice.
  • Asked what national retailer they’d most like to see in their community, one in three Americans said ‘None’ or ‘We have everything we need.’
  • Seventy percent of Americans believe that the relationship between developers and officials makes the development process unfair.
  • Eighty-nine percent of Americans believe a candidate’s position on growth is important at election time.

Power Plants Gain Support

  • The number of Americans who support power plant development in their hometown rose dramatically. Thirty-eight percent of American adults support a local power plant project, compared to just 23 percent in 2006 — a 15 percent rise.
  • Where power plants and quarries were the second most-opposed land uses a year ago, even Wal-Mart, shopping malls and casinos drew more opposition as local development projects this year.
  • 57 percent of American adults still oppose construction of a new power plant in their community, but that is down significantly from last year (74 percent).
  • Support and opposition to all types of power plants tracks fairly consistently across all geographic regions of the U.S., with the Midwest the most receptive region to new power plant construction.
  • Health and environmental concerns drive opposition to power plant construction.
  • Wind farms are by far the most supported type of power plant (76 percent).
  • Nuclear power plants generate the most opposition (65 percent).

Winners and Losers

Some development sectors in the 2007 survey encountered LESS opposition than a year earlier:

  • Landfill — 76% opposed (down from 87%)
  • Quarry — 64% opposed (down from 76%)
  • Wal-Mart — 61% opposed (down from 68%)
  • Power Plant — 57% opposed (down from 75%)
  • Department Store — 52% opposed (down from 55%)
  • Home Improvement Center — 50% opposed (down from 56%)
  • Biotech research — 41% opposed (down from 57%)

Some sectors remain as equally opposed in 2007 as the prior year:

  • Single-family homes — 14% opposed (13% in 2006)
  • Large Shopping Center/Mall — 58% opposed (57% in 2006)

Sectors that face EVEN MORE opposition than in the 2006 Saint Index:

  • Casino — 76% opposed (up from 67%)
  • Apartments/Condos — 44% opposed (up from 34%)
  • Hospital — 32% opposed (up from 26%)
  • Supermarket — 29% opposed (up from 25%)
  • Offices — 43% opposed (up from 40%)

For and Against

  • Casinos are now tied with a landfill as the most-opposed type of local real estate project.
  • Eighty-three percent of people say they support single-family homes in their community.
  • 53 percent of adults who have actively opposed a real estate development project opposed a single- or multi-family residential project.
Of those people who reported opposing a development project in his or her community, they are only slightly more liberal (28 percent) than moderate and conservative (both 22 percent), and they are more or less equally Democrat, Republican or ‘other.

The Saint Index© 2007

The Saint Index was originally created by The Saint Consulting Group in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Economic and Civic Opinion. The 2007 survey was performed by The Logit Group between the dates of August 1 and August 10, 2007. One thousand respondents were randomly selected from the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. The maximum margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent at the 95 percent confidence interval nationwide.

The Saint Consulting Group began operations in 1983 and today is the global leader in land use political consultancy. Saint has 13 offices around the U.S. and international offices in London and Toronto. As experts in land use politics, Saint Consulting provides political campaign expertise to win complex or controversial planning decisions. Among the property sectors that use its services are: aggregates, food retail, shopping centers, hospitals, landfill, mixed-use developers, housing, and utilities.

See Results for UK Survey

See Results for CA Survey



© Copyright 2008, The Saint Consulting Group, Inc.