LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday voted to accept a final map outlining the county”s new supervisorial district boundaries.
The district lines must be redrawn every decade to reflect updated county populations as indicated by the U.S. Census. The BOS considered six possible maps during Tuesday”s weekly meeting, opting to approve a modified version of “Map 5.”
The accepted map, known as “Map 5a,” features several significant boundary adjustments.
The map moves the border between districts 2 and 3 south along Clear Lake all the way down to the Clearlake city limits. As a result, District 3 would contain new residences west of Highway 53, south of Highway 20 and north of the Clearlake city limits, an area that includes parts of Crestview Drive, Elem Road and Sulphur Bank Mine Road.
The map also shifts the district 4-5 boundary to allow District 4 to pick up areas around Soda Bay Road between Clear Lake State Park and Buckingham, which would put Riviera Heights into District 4.
District 5 would pick up a small section of residences east of Highway 29 south of Gaddy Lane and west of downtown Kelseyville.
District 5 would also pick up new areas along its proposed border with District 1.
According to the map, the border follows Seigler Canyon Road to Big Canyon Road, an eastward shift from the current configuration resulting in areas such as Seigler Springs and parts of Boggs Mountain State Forest moving from District 1 to District 5.
District 5 would also pick up some of the Thurston Lake area and a new section of Point Lakeview Road.
The border between districts 1 and 2 remains essentially the same according to the map, with the exception of several blocks between Old Highway 53, Cass Avenue and Huron Avenue moving from District 2 to District 1.
The boundary of districts 3 and 4 would be essentially unchanged from its current configuration.
The BOS unanimously accepted the recommended “Map 5a” and directed staff to draft an ordinance officially establishing the new supervisorial districts as dictated by the new map.
The County Surveyor must provide legal descriptions of all the boundaries as part of the draft ordinance. Diane Fridley, the Lake County Registrar of Voters, said she hopes to present the draft ordinance during the first BOS meeting in September.
The process of determining the new boundaries began in early June and went “very smoothly,” Fridley said.
The boundary adjustments were required to make the population of each supervisorial district as close to equal as possible.
The optimal population for each district would have been 12,933 people based on the census, which determined the countywide population to be 64,665 people. In order to achieve the near equality, districts had to either gain or lose residents.
As currently configured, District 2 had nearly 790 people more than the optimal population, whereas District 4 had 1,020 fewer people. District 3 had to gain 571 residents while District 1 had to lose 326 people and District 5 needed to lose 479.
“Map 5a” brings each district to within no more than six people above or below the optimal population.
The approved map can be viewed online by going to the county”s website and clicking on the “Redistricting Plans” box on the right-hand side of the page.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
