Public Hearing Scheduled For Redistricting

Riverside County residents will get their chance to tell the Board of Supervisors what they think of proposed changes to supervisorial district boundaries, with most of the focus on competing plans over the dividing lines of two districts converging in the city of Riverside.

A public hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday -- though it's likely to start an hour later -- on two proposals submitted by the county's Redistricting Steering Committee.

Between last October and May, the committee met 14 times to solicit public input and discuss how to redraw the five supervisorial districts based on the 2010 U.S. census.

In March, figures from the decennial headcount showed Riverside County had swelled by more than 644,000 people -- an increase of 42 percent -- between 2000 and 2010, the fastest population growth in California during that period.

The steering committee came up with two "working maps'' based on topography, geography, contiguity and "communities of interests'' within the districts. The new boundaries will determine the shapes of supervisorial districts for the next 10 years.

The proposed changes are generally the same for districts 3, 4 and 5. However, there remain unresolved questions about the configuration of districts 1 and 2 and how they should be split.

Supervisor Bob Buster represents the first district, and Supervisor John Tavaglione the second.

Under Proposal "A,'' Tavaglione's district would encompass the area of Riverside north of Arlington Avenue and west of the 60/91/215 interchange, while a section of the city between the 91 freeway and UC Riverside would go to District 2.

Under Proposal "B,'' everything north of Arlington in Riverside would become part of the first district, and the university area would go to the second district.

According to the committee, efforts were made to avoid stretching dividing lines across cities, but the size and population of Riverside posed too great a challenge.

The target for each supervisorial district is 437,928 residents. That number is not supposed to vary by more than 10 percent between the least and most populated districts. However, the redistricting committee capped the margin at 5 percent.

According to county officials, to stay within the targeted range:
   -- Buster's District 1 boundaries would need to be changed to add another 15,601 residents;
   -- Tavaglione's District 2 would need to add 30,657 people;
   -- Supervisor Jeff Stone's District 3 would need to drop 79,925 residents;
   -- Supervisor John Benoit's District 4 would need to add 41,349 people; and
   -- Supervisor Marion Ashley's District 5 would need to shrink by 7,683 residents.

Under the redistricting plan, Benoit's district would expand to include Desert Hot Springs, North Palm Springs and an unincorporated area on the eastern approach to the Coachella Valley -- all of which are currently in the fifth district.

Redistricting is required under state law after every 10-year census.

The board is slated to approve the boundary changes by Sept. 30. If no agreement is reached, however, the issue goes to the district attorney, assessor and county superintendent of schools, who will be tasked with making a decision on adjustments by Dec. 30.

More information about redistricting is available at http://www.rivcoredistricting.org. --City News Services