Officials conducting a survey found that 96 percent of the residents are satisfied with Landis as a place to live.

“That’s as high as I’ve ever seen,” said Bill McCoy, director of the Urban Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

McCoy presented preliminary results of a study to the Board of Aldermen Monday night. He expressed astonishment at the high percentage.

“You can’t hardly believe 96 percent. That’s a huge crowd of people that feel very good about living in Landis.”

McCoy said previous highs in other towns had found satisfaction rates in the 70s and 80s.

Only 4 percent responded they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.

The survey found that safety and cost of living were the major reasons that people chose to live in Landis.

Safety scored as “very important” with 82 percent of residents, with cost of living the second major reason, at 75 percent.

Mayor Pro Tem Gary Beaver interrupted the presentation briefly.

“We need to give H.F. (Police Chief H.F. Jones) an ‘attaboy,’ ” he said. Aldermen agreed and included Fire Chief Reid Linn in the verbal salute.

Seventy-three percent of respondents said they felt safe walking alone at night in their neighborhood.

McCoy provided aldermen with a 30-page preliminary report. The final report is expected in August.

Several months ago, aldermen contracted with the Urban Institute for the evaluation of the town’s operations and a citizen survey. The town is paying $14,000 for the study.

The citizen survey was done in mid-November. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,334 residents, with 385 being returned. The return rate of 29 percent was high, according to McCoy.

Most respondents rated overall services offered by Landis as good (55 percent) or excellent (35 percent).

Residents had few complaints about the rate of growth or potential problems from growth.

As for weaknesses, the lack of retail and grocery stores, as well as recreation and parks, topped the list. Some asked for more senior citizen programs, street lights and street paving.

Trailer parks, street repair and speeding were mentioned most frequently as problems.

Rating overall services, the majority of respondents gave good to excellent marks for the town’s services. Individual services receiving high/excellent ratings include fire protection, electricity, garbage collection, the library and the police.

Recreation drew the largest number of “poor” ratings, with 9 percent; street maintenance came in second at 7 percent.

Respondents rated restaurants, fast food restaurants and entertainment as much needed. A total of 84 percent of respondents wanted more restaurants and 74 percent wanted more fast-food restaurants. Those responding made it clear they don’t want more hardware stores or laundromats.

Bank ATM machines didn’t get high marks. Fifty-seven percent said they are not needed.

Other survey information:

• Fifty-four percent of the respondents have lived in Landis more than 20 years.
• Employment was not a major issue to those responding; as many as 50 percent of those surveyed were retired.
• As for income, 48 percent had less than $30,000; 52 percent, more than $30,000.
• Sixty-six percent of households had one or two people living in the home.
• Among the weaknesses that were cited were high sewage fees, dirty water, narrow leadership vision and police being hard to contact.