Falls Church residents are less satisfied with their roads than they used to be, a new survey suggests.
Still, they continue to have a generally positive view of city services and their community’s overall quality of life.
Those were key takeaways from a study conducted for the city government by Probolsky Research. Details of the community-satisfaction service, the first in two years, were detailed at a City Council work session on Monday.
The good news: Just under 89% of respondents were satisfied with the overall quality of life in Falls Church.
That was roughly the same as 89.5% in a similar survey conducted in 2023, while the number of those dissatisfied moved from 9.8% to 10.5% during the same period.
Satisfaction over the maintenance of streets and traffic signals took a hit, however — declining from 79% in the 2023 survey to 70% in 2025.
The dissatisfaction level rose from 20.5% to 29.8%, with a small fraction in each survey being unsure.
City leaders were not particularly shocked by the findings.
“We know from community input [that the issue] is a critically important topic,” Council member Dave Snyder said. “We are doing some things to rectify it, but it seems to me we need to do more.”
“It really tracks with what we hear” in the community, Council member Marybeth Connelly said.
Mayor Letty Hardi said the results arrived at a timely manner, with the city government about to move through its annual budget season.
One goal during the process, she said, would be “making sure our budget dollars are all aligned” with areas identified by the public as priorities.
A total of 79% of those responding said they were satisfied with the level of city services provided for their city taxes, up from 67.5% two years before. The level of those dissatisfied declined from 30.3% to 19.3%.
A majority — 53.8% — opposed being taxed more to provide for additional services, but that rate was down from 61.3% in the survey taken two years ago. Those in favor of higher taxes for more services was 40.5%, up from 32.3%.
Of those supporting higher taxes, road/infrastructure upgrades were seen as the top priority by 24.7% of respondents, followed by housing initiatives at 22.8%. Development/business initiatives ranked third at 6.2%, with schools fourth at 4.3%.
Surveys went to select city residents via email, phone and text, with responses accepted Feb. 13-20. About 400 people participated by completing the 20-minute survey in English, Spanish or Vietnamese.
The responses have an error rate of plus or minus 5%, Probolsky Research president Adam Probolsky told Council members.
City Manager Wyatt Shields said a staff luncheon event was being organized to go over the data and determine how it can be applied to current and future efforts.
