Lehi City News
City Survey: Residents love Lehi, dislike growth and traffic
Megan Wallgren | Lehi Free Press
Despite concerns with traffic and growth, residents are happy living in Lehi, according to a January 2025 survey commissioned by Lehi City. 75% of Lehi residents would recommend Lehi as a great place to live, and citizens rated their quality of life at an average of 75 on a scale of 0 to 100.
According to Kyrene Gibb, Vice President of Research at Y2 Analytics, Lehi residents’ high satisfaction has been relatively consistent over the nine years the company has been surveying Lehi residents despite the city’s growing pains.
Gibb presented the 2025 survey findings to the Lehi Mayor and City Council during their Feb. 4 budget retreat. The survey fielded 830 responses from six coded regions in the city from Jan. 13 through Jan. 31. Those regions were designated as East, Lake Side, Mountain Side, North, South, and West.
“The impact of growth on traffic, housing and infrastructure continues to be what we’re hearing most from residents as the most pressing issue facing the city,” Gibb said. Respondents who said they’re impacted by rush hour traffic increased from 12 percent in 2021 to 41 percent this year. The most significant increase was in evening traffic on major thoroughfares, freeway exits and onramps.
Of those surveyed, 85% feel that Lehi is growing too quickly. This sentiment increased slightly from last year and a 10% increase in those saying so in 2021. It is a record high since Y2 has been surveying Lehi residents. Residents in the Lake Side and West regions were most concerned about the pace of growth.
Looking at resident’s attitudes toward growth, most say there is too much housing and residential development, an appropriate amount of shopping and retail development, and too little development in greenspace and recreation.
Most residents are satisfied with Leh City’s services. Eight of the 20 rated city services scored at least a 70 average of satisfaction. After 17 city services reached all-time lows in last year’s survey, 13 services improved satisfaction ratings. Snow removal saw the most significant increase, its satisfaction ranking jumping 10%.
Fire and Emergency medical services had the highest satisfaction rating at 86 on a scale of 0 to 100, followed by garbage collection and police services. The lowest ranking was for development permitting, scoring 43 on the satisfaction scale.
One thing residents would like to see is better communication from the city. Overall, 62% of residents said they would like more communication from the city. “They want to hear about development plans, city events, garbage and utility updates, and road closures–those things affecting residents on a day-to-day basis,” Gibb said.
An email from the city would be the preferred means of communication for 40% of respondents. Currently, social media is the primary source of information about the city for most of those surveyed.
There has been a slow but steady decline in those residents who feel the city is headed in the right direction. Approval has dropped from 82% in 2021 to 64% in 2025. This feeling has become more segmented by locales. Those in the East and Mountain Side areas express the most significant approval, and those in the West are the least likely to think the city is on the right track.
According to the survey, 72% of respondents have positive feelings towards the official goals of Lehi City Council, a three percent uptick since last year, and 71 percent approve of elected officials’ job performance.
Regarding voting methods, the vast majority of Lehi residents voted by mail, at 81%. Just 8% reported voting in person. Nine percent said they did not vote, citing “not knowing the candidates” as the primary reason they abstained.
The top reasons for living in Lehi were its central location between Salt Lake and Provo, proximity to jobs and recreation, friendly neighborhoods, good walking and biking paths, and closeness to family. 89% of residents feel safe in the city, and 81% say it is a good place to raise a family.
Future concerns include preserving the character of the city as it is or as residents have known it. “They want to hold onto the small town feel and charm that brought residents here initially,” Gibb said.
