Update: Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to put the Hill in District 4, just before the Town Crier was set to go to print. Story in next week’s paper.
The Advisory Redistricting Commission (ARC) as well as the Riverside County Planning Commission met Wednesday, Dec. 1. The commission reviewed the three maps for which the board of supervisors had requested further analysis, and agreed upon its priority ranking for the three.
RC members recommended by a 4-1 vote Map H (version 7.2) as their first priority and Map F as the second priority. All agreed that Community Map 1.3 was their last priority.
The majority of the public speakers favored Map H. However, three specifically opposed it without supporting Map F or the Community Map.
During the meeting, commissioners David Leonard (District 2) and Gary Thornhill (District 3) expressed concern and support for community comments about a proposed split of the Greater Lake Matthews area and Gavilan Hills in Map H.
“I’m concerned about breaking up Lake Matthews area. The comments I have heard need to be addressed,” Thornhill said.
“This is really difficult. There are a lot of legal requirements. Not all of us will get what we want out of the process; compromises are needed.” And he added, “I’m not happy with all three maps.”
Consequently, the Executive Office Technical Committee staff has also submitted to the board a version 7.3 of Map H to address these concerns.
The priority of these maps and the eventual choice will have little effect on most Hill communities. In all three, Pine Cove, Idyllwild and Mountain Center are moved to District 4.
Garner Valley, south of Lake Hemet, also is in District 4 in maps F and H. However, Garner Valley remains in District 3 in the Community Map.
The boundary between districts 3, 4 and 5 is Valle Vista for Maps F and H, but in the Community Map, it adheres much closer to Idyllwild and Pine Cove. The area west to Valle Vista is still in District 3.
In Maps F and H, Anza, Sage, Aguanga and Lake Riverside are part of District 3. But in the Community Map, only Sage remains in District 3; the other communities are shifted to District 4, which is the reason Commissioner “Bill” Sanchez (District 4) felt this was his least favored map.
“The communities of Anza, Lake Riverside and Aguanga wish to remain within District 3,” he commented.
In his comments, Leonard stated, “Community Map 1.4 is option 3 or less.”
The alternative Map H (7.3) makes no changes to the assignment of Hill areas from Maps F and H (7.2).”
For the last redistricting in 2001, Temecula and Murrieta were shifted to District 3 and the cities of Banning and Beaumont were moved to District 5 from District 3.
Maps H (both) and F establish two districts with large Latino populations resulting in high possibility of the election of Latino candidates. The Community Map creates three of these districts.
