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COURTESY IMAGE The Carpinteria City Council approved redistricting Draft Plan A2 on Monday.
After some back-and-forth among council members, the Carpinteria City Council chose to move forward with the redistricting map it had previously selected.
The council, in a 3-2 vote Monday evening, approved Draft Plan A2. It will be second read in mid-April.
The council decided to stick with this map after throwing in another option earlier this month. Both maps, Draft Plans A2 and A3, were somewhat similar and kept two of the five districts on the coastal side of El Camino Real.
But A2 extended District D to include Via Real, up to the roundabout with Ogan Road. District B included the neighborhood between Aragon Drive and Eleanor Drive up to Chaney Avenue, and District A included the community on the northwest side of Santa Ynez Avenue on the in-land side of El Camino Real.
Mayor Wade Nomura and Councilmembers Gregg Carty and Roy Lee voted for A2. Vice Mayor Al Clark and Councilmember Natalia Alarcon voted for A3.
Councilmember Lee said A2 had been out for months and had received plenty of public input, describing the other map — which the council had agreed to consider at its March 14 meeting — as “still in diapers.”
“A3 is great if you want to build walls,” Councilmember Lee said.
But those in favor of A3, such as Councilmember Alarcon, said the proposal was more compact and kept the Star Pine neighborhood together.
The council also approved the sequencing for the A2 map on Monday. It labeled the districts as:
District 1: District CDistrict 2: District ADistrict 3: District BDistrict 4: District DDistrict 5: District EThe odd number districts will be up for election in November 2022; the even numbers will have their first election cycle in 2024.
The council is transitioning from at-large to district elections this year. Councilmember Alarcon said even though not everyone wanted district elections, this process would give minorities more opportunities to be elected to office.
Redistricting efforts are ongoing throughout the county. The city of Santa Barbara has narrowed its choices to a handful of maps to be considered at a meeting on Wednesday. email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
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