Ames completed the first phase of its visioning project Tuesday when the City Council was presented with the results of the city-wide online visioning survey.

The three week long survey was conducted by Brand Endeavor of Marina del Rey, Calif., the visioning company hired by the council in January.

Brand Endeavor consultants reported that close to 6,000 participants completed the survey, almost doubling the company’s goal of 3,000 respondents.

Christie Harper, president and founder of Brand Endeavor, said she was very pleased with the amount of participants. “We broke our records … we’ve never had that many responses.”

People who completed the survey included Ames residents, neighbors — people who live in rural Ames or surrounding cities — and outsiders.

Part of the survey was to find out what people currently think of Ames. The top three reasons people chose to work or live in Ames were the higher learning opportunities, safety and good schools, according to the survey results.

In addition, the top adjectives used to describe Ames from the survey were safe, friendly, comfortable and middle-class.

Another section of the survey sought to compare Ames with competitive or peer cities. Sixty percent felt that Ames is known regionally, or only within the Midwest.

Harper said this puts Ames’ position into context. She said this response showed that Ames should be positioned against other Midwest towns.

Brand Endeavor also researched the current brands of the cities of Ankeny; Des Moines; Iowa City; Lawrence, Kan.; West Lafayette, Ind.; and Champaign, Ill., in order to compare them with Ames.

Participants were given a list of other Iowa cities or college towns and asked which one Ames is most similar to. Cedar Falls, Iowa City and Ankeny were the top cities chosen as most comparable.

Ames was associated with traits such as being an “innovation center,” “educational/intellectual” and a “small town with big city amenities,” according to the survey. People also reported Ames as “stagnant/not changing or growing.”

In comparison, Des Moines was associated with retail and shopping, while Iowa City was cited as vibrant and energetic.

An additional part of the survey focused on the vision of Ames and the city’s uniqueness. Participants were asked to fill in the blank of the statement, “Ames is the ___ of Iowa.”

“Center was by far the dominant answer,” Harper said.

Answers included words such as “heart” and “geographical middle.”

Other responses focused on the educational and innovation leadership of Ames and Iowa State, with answers such as the “center of innovation,” “center of discovery for Iowa” and “research leader.”

Harper said Iowa State will play a role in the vision.

“It’s very hard to separate the two,” Harper said of the university and the city. “They’re going to be related.”

Many of the respondents desire the relationship between Iowa State and Ames to be “far more collaborative than it currently is,” according to the survey. Half of the respondents reported that the current relationship is either “separate but equal” or led by Iowa State.

The final section of the survey was about change. Two-thirds of the participants said Ames is either “very far away” or “somewhat far away” from the ideal city they envision.

The next phase of the visioning project, “Analysis & Vision Development,” will focus on analyzing the findings from the Discovery Phase and creating a vision and strategic platform to present to the city. This phase includes citizen workshops in order to receive feedback.

The final vision will be presented to the city June 13 and 14.