How Planning for Diverse Residents Leads to Quality of Life in Coronado

by NRC on July 14, 2020

Coronado, California leaders purposefully design City services to appeal to people with different interests and abilities.

-By Brian Smith -

The City of Coronado, California is many things. A resort area. A residential community. A major employment hub with three Navy military bases. And all of that within a tiny land footprint.

Despite juggling the interests of so many different types of people, Coronado has maintained an incredible quality of life for its residents.

“As a full-service City, we have great control over how and where our resources are dedicated,” said Blair King, City Manager. “Our City services are purposefully designed to appeal to a wide variety of interests and abilities and residents have a wide range of services in which to participate.”

The City of Coronado regularly conducts The National Community Survey (The NCS) to gather feedback from community members. Of respondents, 97 percent rated the quality of life in Coronado as excellent or good.

The City scored similar to national benchmarks in five of eight general livability categories, with three - natural environment, recreation and wellness, and education and enrichment - scoring higher than their national benchmarks.

Residents rated several aspects of Coronado higher than the national benchmark, including its characteristics as a place to raise children, overall image, neighborhoods, and overall appearance.

For its quality of life, sense of community and other measurements of livability, Coronado recently won the 2019 Voice of the People award for Excellence in Foundations. This is the only national award that honors local governments based on feedback from residents. The award is presented by Polco / National Research Center (NRC) and the International City & County Management Association (ICMA). This award acknowledges local governments that have the highest ratings on The NCS and that take the best actions on behalf of their communities.

Insightful Planning

“Insightful planning efforts have maximized our public spaces for the benefit of the community,” King said. “In addition, our financial resources have given us the ability to meet the communities' expectations for high customer service standards.”

Residents have access to a marina, golf, tennis, swimming, recreation, arts, culture, athletics, lawn bowling, and many opportunities to participate on City Boards, Committees, and Commissions.

“Coronado residents have access to a wide range of services that enhance quality of life,” said Damema Mann, Director of National Engagement for Polco / National Research Center (NRC). “City leaders are eager to use resident input to continue to improve.”

Eager to Improve

Despite its high rankings, Coronado doesn’t plan to rest on its laurels. King said the City plans to listen to resident feedback as a means of constantly improving.

“Through continued feedback from our Ask Coronado (Request for services) App, Citizen Surveys, Boards, Committees, Commissions and social media efforts, the City strives to listen to our residents' concerns and keep an open mind about our future needs,” King said. “We believe all input is valuable and there is always room for improvement.”

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