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Portions of Downtown and West Menlo neighborhoods will have new districts that determine when they vote in the next City Council election and for which representative.
On Thursday evening, the Independent Redistricting Commission — established to redraw Menlo Park’s five district voting boundaries without City Council oversight — wrapped up the redistricting process following two months of careful review involving over two dozen maps, submitted by both the public and commission members.
The new map will be adopted on April 14 in the next commission meeting to allow a seven-day period for public feedback, a formality that is unlikely to lead to substantive changes. Afterwards, it will be presented to the City Council, which won’t be allowed to adjust boundaries.
“I think that the process went very well overall,” said Caio Arellano, chair of the redistricting commission, who was not present at the Thursday meeting due to work commitments. “There were some challenges, I think, in getting the amount of outreach and public input that we would have liked based on restrictions around COVID … but overall I’m pleased.”
This map only focuses on the changes that will be made once the Independent Redistricting Commission adopts the new boundaries on April 14. Map by Lloyd Lee.
The changes to the new district lines are slight, but will impact about 662 people based on 2020 U.S. Census data, and the boundaries will be set for the next decade until 2030.
The changes are limited to two neighborhoods: Downtown Menlo Park and West Menlo.
In the corner of downtown Menlo Park, a portion of District 3 residents, currently represented by Jen Wolosin, will now be a part of District 4, which is represented by Mayor Betsy Nash. Based on Census data, this moves around 248 residents residing in the L-shaped block bordered by Valparaiso Avenue, Hoover Street, Oak Grove Avenue, El Camino Real, Santa Cruz Avenue and Crane Street.
The new lines will also move a chunk of downtown businesses, from the former Menlo Bazaar store to the Stacks diner on the corner of Santa Cruz Avenue and El Camino, into Nash’s district.
In West Menlo, a block of residents bordered by Santa Cruz Avenue, Cotton Street, Middle Avenue and Wallea Drive, will be drawn out of District 4 and into District 5, which is currently represented by Ray Mueller. This represents about 414 people.
The new boundaries means that the portion of District 3 residents, who voted in 2020 and will be moved into a different district, will have an opportunity to vote again in 2022 for a new District 4 representative. And voters in District 4 who are moved to District 5 will have to wait until 2024 to pick a new City Council member.
City Council election runs on a four-year cycle but is staggered between Districts 1, 2 and 4, which had an election in 2018, and Districts 3 and 5, which had an election in 2020.
It was a gripe council member Drew Combs brought up about the city’s election cycle, when the council voted 3-2 last year to create an independent group to draw the district borders. Combs called making a resident wait six years to vote “disenfranchisement.”
It was also a point that partly deterred members of the redistricting commission from adopting any map that significantly reshaped the boundaries and one that left members feeling stuck when it boiled down to two maps left in the running.
However, Alex Sainz, a consultant for GEOinovo Solutions, who helped provide calculations and guidance throughout the redrawing process, said that some voters will have to see a change in election date.
“Regardless of how the lines change, whenever redistricting happens, it’s inevitable that some number of people will be pushed either back two years or move forward two years,” Sainz said. “I’m not sure if it should be a significant determining factor for one map or the other, especially when considering population balance, easily recognizable boundaries, neighborhoods, communities of interest, all these great things that the commission has discussed up to this point.”
No changes were made to District 1 or District 2.
“That was something that we, as a commission, coalesced around pretty early on — that that neighborhood is very much well defined,” Arellano said of District 1, referring to how 101 Highway provides an easy, guiding border. “One of the criteria of the elections code says boundaries should be easily identifiable and understandable by residents.”
A range of factors can be considered when redrawing district borders. On top of requirements outlined by the California Fair Maps Act, which stipulates that the districts must be geographically contiguous or touching each other and that an effort must be made to maintain neighborhoods within the same district, the commission could also consider school attendance figures, shared demographics including levels of income or education, areas where there are parks or major upcoming developments, as well as existing dividing lines such as major roads or highways.
But on Thursday, as the commission deliberated over six maps left in the running, the final decision boiled down to how to reduce the variance in population between each district without moving too many voters around.
Menlo Park has a total population of 33,830 residents, according to census data, which means the “target population” for each district is 6,766. By law, the city must remain within a 10% variance between the lowest and highest populated district. In this case, it was District 1 and 5.
The new map deviates from 6,766 by 8.08%, which commissioners said is about a one-point reduction from the current district boundaries.
While District 1 is facing a slew of major developments — the planning commission just approved another mixed-used building with 158 rental units near Meta headquarters — the commissioners’ final decision was largely driven by current census figures.
There also appeared to be some confusion around what the new maps would actually achieve.
One of the hopes commission members had for the new maps was to split the district locations of the upcoming Springline development on 1300 El Camino Real and Stanford University’s Middle Plaza development along a stretch of 500 El Camino Real. However, both developments are already located in different districts, with the former in District 3 and the latter in District 4.
Six commission members were initially evenly split between two maps, with Arellano not present, before unanimously voting on the final map.
The next commission meeting will be held April 14, in person at the City Council Chambers and online. Details can be found at beta.menlopark.org.
Menlo Park City Council district boundaries
