The city of Los Alamitos, just two years into electing members of the Council by elections in single member districts, began the process this week of redistricting the city as required by law.
The city held a special meeting Jan. 18 wherein they held the first of four proposed public hearings on the redistricting process.
Mayor Shelley Hasselbrink introduced Justin Levitt, Vice President of National Demographics Corporation (NDC), the firm that initially assisted the city when they voluntarily decided to create single member districts in 2019.
Voters in Los Alamitos voted in 2020 using single member districts and must already create new districts as required by the decennial U.S. Census, which was completed in 2020, said Levitt.
In order to routinely apportion voting power with demographic changes in the country’s population, the U.S. Constitution requires a Census of the population every ten years, the data from which can then be used to redraw voting districts as necessary.
Accordingly, Levitt told members of the Los Alamitos Council that already, District 3 in the city is overpopulated, while three other districts have become under populated which will require adjustments.
Levitt said federal laws have changed and there are certain tenets that must guide their process. For instance, he said the districts must be contiguous, meaning the boundaries must always touch each other and undivided neighborhoods and “communities of interest” must generally be kept together.
Also, Levitt said districts must have identifiable boundaries, partisan considerations and data are not allowed to inform the drawing of these boundaries, and districts should be as compact as possible.
The city has 16-18 identifiable neighborhoods, such as Apartment Row, Old Dutch Haven and Carrier Row that will factor in the division of the new districts, he added.
In addition, Levitt said the Census data suggests there is a significant Latino community in the west end of the city and a notable Asian-American community living in the northern end of a current District.
At the end of the process, Levitt said the city’s new districts must conform to the 2020 Census data, with no more than 10 percent deviation in any district. Among the list of changes in the new redistricting requirements he explained to the Council, Levitt mentioned a requirement for four public hearings.
Levitt said the new districts need to be approved by April so they will have the final public hearing in March, to give themselves time to make any final adjustments before the deadline for approval of the new districts.
Hasselbrink and Councilman Ron Bates wanted to know about how the new districts will accommodate future housing projects, which will, of course, bring new residents to the district.
“So, you talked about future neighborhoods,” Hasselbrink said to Levitt, “we have two new neighborhoods coming online, one is 50 townhomes and another 100 luxury living units. How would that work,” she asked?
Levitt, who is a native of Los Alamitos, said districts where they know housing projects are underway can be factored by a percent or two to “anticipate” the new residents.
Mayor Pro-tem Tanya Doby said currently, District 1 (the district she represents) is almost exclusively multi-family housing. She said less than 20 single family homes exist in her district.
The NDC executive also explained to residents where they can find online mapping tools and suggested future public hearings will give residents plenty input.
“We actually have a plan to hold two public hearings prior to draft maps being drawn. And three public hearings following the draft maps being released,” said Levitt.
“That should give us plenty of time over the next three months to really focus on the different options on the different maps prior to this April 17 deadline that the state has set for map adoption.”