A 2% Survey Shouldn’t Drive Village Policy

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) have caught the attention of the Shorewood Village Board. The Village recently promoted a link to a survey on January 8, 2026. Distribution was limited to recipients of the Village Manager’s memo and social media channels. Shorewood has a resident population of 13,521. The survey generated 280 responses . . . that’s a tiny 2% of the population.

The Board appears to embrace the results of this survey. This reflects poor governance. We should be doing better at engaging a meaningful and representative sample of the community. There were no safeguards built into the survey methodology; individuals from anywhere could complete the survey multiple times. Only 9.6% of respondents identified as renters, including those living in upper or lower flats, despite the fact that approximately 50% of Shorewood households are renter-occupied. Once again, a substantial portion of the community’s voices has been ignored.

The only survey method capable of reliably reflecting community sentiment is one that reaches a statistically significant number of residents and achieves a representative demographic distribution. The method used accomplished neither and could easily have been exploited by a small number of participants . . . either for or against ADUs. A legitimate approach would involve a mailed survey sent to residential addresses. This assessment is intentionally blunt because the current approach limits Village policy-making to the well-connected few.

We can - - and should - - do better if we want policy that reflects the whole community.