The Grover Beach community survey happens every two years, and since the last survey in 2023, top concerns for residents have changed.
The latest round of survey results show Grover Beach residents have become more concerned with increased development and housing prices.
“People, like friends of mine, they had to move out their families and stuff like that because of the cost of living and stuff now,” said Danny Blanco of Grover Beach.
Just over 20% of the people surveyed said roads and transportation were the most important issues to them in Grover Beach. Overpopulation and development topped the list for another 20 percent of those surveyed, and 14% said they worry about housing affordability.
Some residents in other parts of the 5 Cities area say they share the same concerns. Makayla Lord of Arroyo Grande says she began avoiding the area when construction started on the new housing projects on West Grand Avenue.
“I guess I have mixed reviews. I think that, yeah, you do want to bring a certain, like new up and coming, like new look to Grover Beach, but with that, yeah, just comes more crowds and which can be good, but it can also be bad,” Lord said.
Four hundred Grover Beach residents took part in the 2025 community survey via phone calls, texts and emails. Mayor Kassi Dee says the survey is conducted every two years.
“Generally, this helps our council get the pulse of the community and see what our community is asking of us and how we can represent them. It also gives us a benchmark for our staff to see how well they're doing in their jobs and what we can be doing further to provide services for our residents here in Grover Beach,” Mayor Dee said.
In 2023, homelessness, public safety and transportation were the top community issues. While transportation has stayed at the top, concerns surrounding homelessness and public safety have gone down.
“They kind of got the issue on, on the homeless people and stuff like that, so that's kind of a, kind of good because, yeah, a lot of people don't like to see that,” Blanco said.
“There are so many cities that public safety, homelessness is number one on their priority. In our survey, we found that homelessness was a little bit further down on the list, which means we're doing our job right as a city,” Mayor Dee said.
To see the full list of survey results, click here.
