On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors held a public
hearing to consider recommendations of the 11-member Citizen’s
Redistricting Advisory Commission, appointed last December.
The advisory group’s mission is to make recommendations to the
board for the adjustment of supervisorial district boundaries to
reflect population shifts identified in the 2010 Census.
On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors held a public hearing to consider recommendations of the 11-member Citizen’s Redistricting Advisory Commission, appointed last December.
The advisory group’s mission is to make recommendations to the board for the adjustment of supervisorial district boundaries to reflect population shifts identified in the 2010 Census.
The group has held several meetings to solicit public input, including a meeting in Morgan Hill in April.
At Tuesday’s meeting the committee presented an overview of their work to the board of supervisors along with the various maps they discussed. County staff and the board presented additional maps bringing the total number of maps to 13.
The majority of the board voted to move the following four maps forward for active consideration:
– Map 1: which would maintain district boundaries as they currently exist;
– Map Jackie May 19: which would move communities of interest in San Jose to different districts;
– Map Sunnyvale E: which would move Sunnyvale boundary from El Camino Real to Highway 101;
– Map LK Central: which would move the Sunnyvale boundary from El Camino Real to Central Expressway.
Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who was elected in November, likely won’t see much of a change to the district that encompasses Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill, Los Gatos and neighborhoods in South San Jose and the Evergreen area, except for a possible Monte Sereno addition.
The commission must make sure each of the five districts maintain the same number of residents – 356,000 – with a 5 percent cushion available above and below that standard. District 1 is the largest in geographic area and with the 2010 results has 354,681 residents, but the commission aims to bring is as near to 356,000 as possible. To do that, 1,647 need to be added, (1,781,642 live in the county up 5.9 percent since 2000). The different map choices describe ways to bring in more people from the northern border of District 1, likely from neighborhoods in the Evergreen area or South San Jose.
The remaining maps are in inactive status for now. The board will consider redistricting further at its June 21 meeting.
