I. BACKGROUND The City of Fort Collins is committed to the goal “… of continually improving air quality as the city grows .” In order to do this, City Council adopted the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP), which establishes specific programs to achieve air pollution reduction. In order to access the effectiveness of air quality programs, the AQAP calls for periodic residential surveys to determine general public views on air quality programs and solutions. The General Air Quality Survey, which focuses primarily on outdoor air quality, was last conducted in 1997. Additional residential surveys look specifically at indoor air pollution, woodburning and radon. The objectives of the General Air Quality Survey are to: (1) Determine public perception of outdoor air pollution problems. (2) Identify which air quality programs the public feels should be a priority for the city and which are most effective for continually improving air quality. (3) Gather data that will improve air quality campaigns and marketing efforts. (4) Assess public participation in activities that minimize air pollution The General Air Quality Survey is funded through a Clean Air Colorado grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. II. SURVEY SAMPLE The General Air Quality Survey was conducted in early June 1999. 2,925 surveys were mailed to a random sample of Fort Collins residents by zipcode. Six-hundred seventy surveys (670), or 23%, were returned and analyzed. After analyzing the first 300 or so surveys, results changed only marginally. This phenomenon has been noted with all public surveys conducted by the city over the last several years. In 1997, 1,500 surveys were mailed and 424 or 28% were analyzed. In 1997, residents were offered an opportunity to win one of several $25 gift certificates from local grocery stores as an incentive to return the surveys. This incentive program was repeated with a subsequent indoor air quality survey. After assessing the response of incentives versus no incentives, it was determined that the small increase in survey response did not merit the extra staff time and money involved. The incentive program was not repeated in 1999…

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