Executive Summary |
CONCLUSIONS
BW Research Partnership offers the following conclusions from the 2007 resident survey for the City of Carlsbad.
The City of Carlsbad is transitioning from a small to medium sized city of less than 100,000 residents to a larger city. While the City’s population has increased, so have the diverse needs of its residents. In our experience, larger and more diverse cities, particularly those with a population greater than 100,000, face increasing challenges maintaining a high level of satisfaction among its residents. In the future, as the City’s population continues to grow, Carlsbad will need to be more vigilant to maintain resident satisfaction.
Overall, residents of Carlsbad are quite satisfied with the job the City is doing to provide services. Ninety-two percent of respondents stated they were satisfied with the City’s overall provision of services, and over half of those respondents were very satisfied. The high proportion of satisfaction with the City’s overall provision of services ranks in the top ten percent of comparable city resident satisfaction surveys and should be considered a solid baseline of support when examining residents assessments of more specific city services.
Results of the survey also provide some direction on where the City can focus resources to further improve residents’ satisfaction with Carlsbad. While almost all residents were satisfied with the overall job the City is doing to provide services, just over a quarter of residents indicated that that the quality of life in the City was getting worse. Residents who were more likely to indicate the quality of life in the City was getting worse had lived in Carlsbad for 15 years or more and were over the age of 35 (and more likely to be 55 to 64 years old). When asked what could be done to improve Carlsbad, these residents were focused on the issues of growth in the City and the related symptoms of congestion and development. Among less satisfied residents, there appears to be a desire to keep Carlsbad as it was - or at least what it was perceived - as a less congested and developed community.
Residents’ land use and development priorities can be seen in the responses to what should be done with the strawberry fields in the future. Over 80 percent of respondents indicated they would like to see traditionally undeveloped open space in at least some part of the land in and around the strawberry fields. Approximately half of respondents indicated they would prefer to see the City use the land exclusively for traditionally undeveloped open space that could be used for trails or a nature park. Another 32 percent of respondents thought the City should use the land for some combination of open space that would combine traditionally undeveloped open space, recreational open space that included athletic fields and recreation centers and a cultural and civic open space that could be used for a museum or an open-air theatre.
The results of the survey also show that creating more traditional open space for trails and a nature park, from the land that is currently in and around the strawberry fields, engenders the least amount of opposition from residents (16 percent opposed) when compared to other uses that were examined such as cultural and civic open space (45 percent opposed), recreational open space (43 percent opposed), or a combination of the three types of open space (38 percent opposed).
Lastly, it should be noted that while respondents did not agree on all of the issues related to land use and development in Carlsbad, respondents were more likely to agree on other important local issues and assessments connected to the City’s sense of community, communications efforts, and residents experience in the village.
- Over 80 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with the statement “It is very important for me to feel a sense of community with other residents”.
- Over 80 percent of respondents were at least somewhat satisfied, if not very satisfied, with the City’s efforts to communicate with residents.
- Almost 90 percent of respondents who had visited Carlsbad’s downtown Village rated their experience as either excellent or good.
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