Belmont picks district elections map

“I want to thank everyone who made a public comment, submitted maps and participated in the process. Your comments were very well thought out and brought up things that helped our decisions,” Mayor Julia Mates said.

Community input on district maps showed a desire to keep Sterling Downs and Homeview whole and Belmont Heights and Plateau Skymont whole. It also wanted to keep schools and parks together and create eastern, western and two central districts. Highway 101, Old County Road and El Camino Real would remain natural boundaries for districts. The council was against draft map 1 because it divided Belmont Heights, a community of interest and a priority to keep together in the lead-up to a decision. Map two will keep Belmont Heights together and offers continuity, compactness and fewer deviation among districts, which the council unanimously supported.

“I am leaning towards map two because, in many ways, it has the most compact districts. One of the general rules is districts should be compact, which I think is better in option two,” Vice Mayor Tom McCune said.

Councilmember Charles Stone picked draft map two and having the mayor election in 2022. He was concerned that both maps split the Cipriani neighborhood, particularly as it had the same arguments to stay together as Belmont Heights. However, he acknowledged some communities would have to be divided in district maps now and potentially in the future.

“There is no free pass here. Communities are going to be divided. There is no way to draw this map and keep all the neighborhoods that we would like to keep together,” Stone said.

Over the last few months, the city and the public have evaluated different draft maps and debated how to divide the city. The maps must be of relatively equal size, contiguous, maintain communities of interest, and keep districts compact. Map two has about 7,000 people in each district.

Belmont is moving to district-based elections from its at-large system after receiving a July 30 letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman alleging violations under the California Voting Rights Act due to using an at-large election system. Its current system allows residents to vote for all councilmember. The new district system will only allow residents to vote for someone in their district. There will be four total districts. The council has held several public hearings to get input, with the most controversy over if it should have an at-large mayor or keep a rotating mayor. The council decided to have a directly elected mayor with a two-year term because it gave a greater regional voice to Belmont and ensures a unifying voice to unite the four districts to fight against parochialism, despite some resident concern. There will be five people on the council, with an at-large mayor and four councilmembers.

The maps will be brought back for final approval at a later council meeting. The district letters will be converted to numbers going from east to west.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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