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As the Village of Lansing works on updating its comprehensive plan, Trustees discussed surveying local businesses to supplement the information gathered in a phone survey of residents last month.  With a large retail and business component, the Village wants to know what managers and business owners think.  Discussion of a new survey focussed on traffic, signage and shopping carts, and the form a business survey would take.

"My thought is that we would send them a written survey," said trustee Julie Baker.  "We can try to figure out if there is anything from the phone survey that is appropriate for the businesses."

The Village has long been plagued by shopping carts that are dumped in neighborhoods and streams near the mall area.  That is a problem for business owners who are losing the expensive carts, as well as neighborhoods that are littered with them.  Because it is a continuing issue for Village officials, Planning Board Chairman Mario Tomei suggested a business survey include questions about shopping carts.

Trustee and Deputy Mayor Lynn Leopold said the survey should ask business owners about the Village sign law.  Many business owners find the law restrictive, while Village officials struggle with keeping signage at bay due to the dense volume of businesses along the Triphammer Road corridor.

"I talk to small business owners along Triphammer," she said.  "They know we have a sign law and they feel discriminated against because they're small and they don't have all that visibility out there.  It's hard that we have to draw the line."

Mayor Donald Hartill said that the survey should ask businesses about traffic and way finding, and its impact on business.  Leopold noted that Trustees and the Planning Board have considered way finding signs policies and potential designs in the past, but the discussions have not led to action so far.

Other questions may mirror some of those asked in the citizen phone survey.

Trustee Pat O'Rourke said the surveys should be sent to the businesses, not to the owners.  Leopold noted that some businesses have absentee owners, so it would be useful for store managers to respond to the survey in those cases.  Village Clerk Jodi Dake said that one way to try to increase responses would be to walk from business to business, distributing the survey to managers.

Tomei suggested only polling a percentage of businesses, mixing large and small establishments to get a sample, in the same way about ten percent of Village residents were polled.  But Leopold and Baker said it wouldn't be hard to get surveys to all Village businesses.  The issue would be how many are returned.

Baker said she would make a pass at a first draft, then bring it back to the Trustees for editing.  She said she would send a draft for comments by email before the next Trustee meeting.

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