Board Picks Three Districting Plans For City Maps Will Be Submitted To Council For Decision

Sifting through more than two dozen maps, painstakingly checking neighborhood boundaries and voting precincts, the Council Districting Board found three ways to divide Spokane into thirds.

For six weeks, the board has been holding workshops and collecting districting plans drafted by the citizens of Spokane. On Tuesday, they weighed the merits of 31 plans and chose three to submit to the City Council.

The plans represent a wide range of options, from a simple division of the North Side that left the South Hill whole, to a more dramatic concept that kept much of the north intact while splitting the rest of the city. A third option would divide the city into three horizontal bands.

From those three, the City Council will pick one map that divides the city for the purposes of electing council members. Each district will elect two representatives, while a council president will be elected at large.

The plans will be submitted to the City Council on Monday, and council members will have a month to select one.

The districting proposal and the method for creating the districts were the products of a ballot initiative in November’s election. Proponents of districting hope it will create better representation and more accountability from council members.

The board consisted of John Kohls, a Gonzaga professor; Elinor Magnuson, a community volunteer; and Bob Mansfield, who worked in external relations for Avista.

Nearly 60 plans were submitted to the board, but about 20 were rejected because they didn’t meet the requirement that the populations be balanced in the three districts.

The plans were grouped into five basic themes. One theme, which divided the city into vertical stripes, was jettisoned immediately for being unwieldy. Another two, variations of horizontal stripes, were combined into one. The plans that were chosen came out of the resulting three basic groups.

The board took pains to keep neighborhoods and voting precincts intact. They also weighed the simplicity of the plans and the comments of citizens who attended the five districting forums.

The plans chosen were:

Map No. 28. The plan splits the North Side into two along Division, while keeping the South Hill intact. The north-south border would be Interstate 90 east of Monroe and the Spokane River to the west. Downtown east of Monroe would be included in the northeast section.

The plan divides two neighborhoods, East Central and Riverside, but members of those communities indicated they didn’t object to being split.

Map No. 4. A compromise between a number of maps that divided the city into horizontal stripes. The plan keeps the South Side intact, but puts the East Central neighborhood in the middle tier, which also includes Hillyard.

A total of four neighborhoods would be split.

Map No. 55. The most radical plan, it splits much of the city into two halves, although it maintains a band across the north. The north boundary, however, jogs and weaves in order to protect neighborhoods, ducking south to include all of North Hill, swerving back north to exclude Be miss, then plunging south to include half of Chief Garry Park.

The Northwest neighborhood would also be divided.

“It looks funny,” Kohl said.

Kohl also wondered if the City Council would give it serious consideration.

The plan included a lengthy explanation from its submitter, Eastern University professor Robert Herold.

“If you read all 19 pages of his treatise, they’ll soften a bit,” Mansfield said.

The board’s decisions were given mixed grades from David Bray, who drafted the ballot initiative.

Bray felt the board made too much of an effort to choose widely divergent plans when most of the plans submitted followed the map 28 model.

He wondered if the board was trying to accommodate the council’s desire for a wide variety of choices, instead of reflecting the wishes of people who submitted plans.

“They’re not supposed to try and preserve the wants and needs of the City Council,” Bray said. “They’re supposed to try and preserve the wants and needs of the city.”

WHAT’S NEXT The Council Districting Board will formally present the three plans to the City Council on Monday. The council has 30 days to review the plans and make a decision.