Congressional line divides neighbors - Plan splits - Wood Ranch down parkway

Ventura County Star (CA) - Friday, June 24, 2011
Timm Herdt ; therdt@vcstar.com 916-444-3958

When it comes to drawing a new congressional district, the phrase 'close enough for government work' does not apply. 

And, for the moment at least, that's a problem for residents of the masterplanned community of Wood Ranch in Simi Valley. Under case law stemming from the U.S. Su preme Court's landmark 'one man-one vote' decision in 1962, congressional districts in each state must be drawn to make the population of each almost exactly equal. 

Under that formula, as the Citizens Redistricting Commission goes about drawing 53 new congressional districts this year in California, each one must have 702,905 people. A variance of one person is allowed. 

So where does Wood Ranch come in? 

In the draft map for a new congressional district that includes most of Ventura County, the commission moved Moorpark and Simi Valley to a separate district to the east. That arrangement would avoid splitting any city in the county … almost. 

It turns out the commission needed to take 2,000 people from the combined Moorpark-Simi Valley population of 158,658 to make the numbers work out. To accomplish that, the commission drew a line down the middle of Wood Ranch Parkway. 

Simi Valley city officials and residentsofWoodRanchappealedtothe commission to find its 2,000 people somewhere else. 

"The proposed boundaries fracture neighborhoods in Wood Ranch and place neighbors living on opposite sides of the street in different congressional districts," wrote Mayor Bob Huber in a letter to the commission. 

"These divisions appear inconsistent and incompatible with the commission's goal of respecting neighborhood boundaries to the extent possible." 

Testifying before the panel at a hearing this week in Oxnard, Richard Olson, representing a Wood Ranch homeowners' association, asked that the planned community be reunited. 

"There are 2,000 residents who have separated from everything," he said. 

City Councilwoman Barbra Williamsonalso testifiedandpresented Huber's letter to commissioners. 

Commissioners seemed inclined to fix the problembut askedWilliamson and city officials for some help. Commissioner Michelle DiGuilio of Stockton asked city officials to submit a proposal that identifies 2,000 people somewhere else. 

The challenge, assuming the general scheme of the proposed district is followed in the panel's final map, is now to find a neighborhood on the edge of either Moorpark or Simi Valley that could be more logically detached.