Santa Barbara County’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission picked three “focus maps” on Wednesday night, just two weeks before the Dec. 15 deadline of adopting a final map.
The commission has been meeting over the past month to review the 100-plus maps submitted by the public for drawing the county’s five supervisorial districts.
Voters in each district elect one member of the five-member county Board of Supervisors and the boundaries are redrawn every 10 years according to U.S. Census data.
Commissioners narrowed 10 focus maps down to five during the Nov. 22 meeting, and then dwindled that number down to three on Wednesday night in a five-hour meeting.
The 11-member commission plans to pick a final map on Saturday and adopt one on Dec. 8 before the Dec. 15 deadline to submit the map and report back to the county, according to chair Glenn Morris. The Dec. 8 meeting is the commission’s “last shot” to adopt a map and approve the report, Morris said on Wednesday.
The main differentiation between the five focus maps and revised versions that were discussed on Wednesday were the patterns of combining Guadalupe with Orcutt and Isla Vista with Santa Barbara, and the patterns of pairing Guadalupe with Santa Maria and Isla Vista with Lompoc, explained the commission’s redistricting consultant, Daniel Phillips of the National Demographics Corp.
Two of the five proposed maps combined Guadalupe with Orcutt and Isla Vista with Santa Barbara, and three of the maps combined Guadalupe with Santa Maria and Isla Vista with Lompoc.
The commission voted to move forward with Map 818 C, which pairs Guadalupe with Santa Maria, Orcutt with the Santa Ynez Valley and Isla Vista, and New Cuyama and Cuyama with the Montecito-Summerland-Carpinteria and Mission Canyon area.
It also moved forward with Map 821 C, which pairs Guadalupe with part of Santa Maria, Orcutt with Los Alamos, Buellton, and Santa Ynez, and Isla Vista with Lompoc and Solvang.
Commissioner Janet Rios said that the only revision between Map 821 and Map 821 C was that the Chumash reservation was moved into the Third District and Cuyama was moved into the First District, a change she proposed keeping in mind the wishes of the Chumash to stay connected to their historical areas.
The final map that moved forward was Map 822 C, which groups Guadalupe with a geographically larger fifth district that includes part of Santa Maria and New Cuyama and Cuyama, Orcutt with another part of Santa Maria, Los Alamos, and the Vandenberg Space Force Base area, and moves Isla Vista into a district that encompasses Goleta, the Eastern Goleta Valley, and part of Santa Barbara.
The three maps chosen were all commissioner’s revisions of maps submitted by members of the public.
The commission moved forward on these maps with the understanding that small changes can be made at Saturday’s meeting, said commission vice chair Megan Turley.
The current map of Santa Barbara County supervisorial districts was drawn from 2010 U.S. Census information.
Visit the Redistricting Commission website at https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/view-draft-maps/ to view all of the draft maps and the three focus maps.
You can also click each link below to view the proposed map and district-level demographic information.
» Commissioner Bray/Trosky/Turley 822 C
Upcoming Meetings
» Saturday, Dec. 4, at 10 a.m., meeting in person in Santa Barbara and accessible via Zoom. Commissioners will identify a preferred map. The in-person meeting is at the County Administration Building’s Planning Commission Room, 123 E. Anapamu St.
» Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m., meeting in person in Santa Barbara and accessible via Zoom. Commissioners will choose a final map.
All meetings can be viewed live via Zoom, with links on the agenda website here: https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/calendar-agenda/.
The county redistricting page with the meeting calendar, draft maps and other information is available here: https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/.
— Noozhawk staff writer Jade Martinez-Pogue can be reached at jmartinez-pogue@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
