PROPOSED ELECTION DISTRICTS

in Franklin County, Virginia

based on year 2010 census counts

(Total population = 56,159)

(7 districts -- ideal population = 8,023)

Proposal on agenda

Franklin County website

Franklin News-Post

MEMO

To: Franklin County Board of Supervisors

Subject: Redistricting

The map published on the county's website and in the newspaper is successful in changing the old districts as little as possible. Yet the purpose of this exercise is not to continue the past. The purpose is to represent the people of Franklin County as they are now, not a decade or more ago.

Here are some observations:

  1. Beyond the obvious gross population equality, no justification has appeared in print to support specific decisions for placing the lines.

  2. It is difficult to pinpoint the blocks being shifted, as no maps bearing the block numbers have been published by the Bureau of Census. The block numbers have been reassigned since 2000, invalidating the maps from that census. The new block boundaries and numbers must have been determined before the census was taken almost a year ago, so the Bureau must have sat on this information rather than posting the maps at the census website months ago.

  3. As the election districts for supervisors are changed, the magisterial districts should be uncoupled from them and stabilized, as in 1991 (recorded in the Supervisors Order Book 22, p355-363). Magisterial districts are recorded on deeds and land surveys, documents that tend to be used for decades without revision. Changes render some of that information obsolete and the rest unreliable. Obsolete notations are often copied to development applications. (Within the past six years, applicants have placed a Gogginsville parcel in Boone District and a Dudley parcel in Gills Creek, whence they had been removed some years before.) Franklin County is apparently the only county in Virginia that can extend zoning to magisterial districts. So, why not arrange the magisterial district boundaries in places that would best serve as planning boundaries? (Fairfax County seems to keep its magisterial districts constant, with even the names at variance with its election districts.)

  4. A concentrated minority population in Rocky Mount, Sontag, Henry Fork, Dickenson, and surrounding communities has been unnecessarily divided and dispersed, violating the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.

  5. Instead of picking up population at its south end or near the middle, the Rocky Mount District would stretch northward from 7 miles to 9 miles to grab territory as far north as Bonbrook, a community that already has a precinct. (The district would remain about 2.5 miles wide.) According to the county's figures, the black population in Rocky Mount District would drop from 19.46% to 18.11%. Alternatively, adding black-majority blocks at the south end could raise the figure to 25% or more.

  6. Expanding Rocky Mount district to include the entire town of Rocky Mount is appropriate, although it is not necessary to go beyond the town line to pick up adjacent territory north and northeast of the town.

  7. Burnt Chimney would be fragmented, undermining its chance of getting a branch library within the next decade. The corner including the school would be annexed by Union Hall district. The other three corners would be left in Gills Creek district, as a politically insignificant tail end. In 2006, Burnt Chimney was found to be a promising site for a library because it would serve thousands of residents within a short distance. Yet it is doubtful the county would consider locating a second library in Gills Creek District. (Consider that the system of five high schools in Roanoke County can only have been established to equalize pork barrel among the five supervisors.) As long as most of the Burnt Chimney crossroads remains attached to the Gills Creek District, its share of county services may be unduly limited. If the Burnt Chimney community, which retains agriculture as the dominant land use, can be shifted in its entirety to another district, the location can compete on an equal basis with others for public facilities.

  8. The Dudley community remains awkwardly divided. The boundary between the Scruggs and Dudley precincts at the lake shore is confusing to some of the residents. With all the other shifts being made, one can only wonder why that line is not being moved to a more visible location.

  9. Although the overall direction of population shift must be to the northeast, to Smith Mountain Lake, the proposal depicts election districts on the west side being shifted southward. Blackwater loses territory to Boone in the north and picks up from Blue Ridge in the south.

  10. Transferring people on the south side of Bonbrook Lane to Rocky Mount East precinct is inappropriate, as they live at the heart of Bonbrook, which already has a precinct.

  11. Moving a district line from Six Mile Mountain road to the census tract boundary on a minor street, Rock Ridge road, does not represent much of an improvement. Why not use a stream or a through street?

  12. If neighborhoods along Booker T. Washington highway are assigned to Rocky Mount East precinct, they will have to travel past the Rocky Mount Elementary School (a polling place) and nine traffic signals to get to their own polls.

  13. The unincorporated end of Diamond Avenue, assigned to Rocky Mount South precinct, has closer proximity to Rocky Mount West.

  14. From Hyde Hollow lane, voters currently have a long trip to reach the Snow Creek polling location; they would more easily get to the Fork Mountain polls in the same election district.

  15. From John Arthur road (Route 862) and nearby Wrights road, Webster Branch road, Masons Knob road, Apple Valley lane, and Mill Pond lane, voters have a long, mountainous trip to reach the Bowmans polls in Blackwater district; they are closer to the Boones Mill polls in Boone district where their neighbors across Naff road will vote.

  16. From Slings Gap road and nearby Majestic lane and Glendale road, residents have a long, mountainous trip to reach the Bowmans polls in Blackwater district; unfortunately, that situation defies remedy.

Although it may be difficult to solve all these problems, it is clear that the ethnic minority community need not be cracked apart and diluted. There is a way to pull enough black residents together to comprise 25.5% of the voting age population.

# TOTAL POPULATION DEVIATION FROM AVERAGE POPULATION NON-HISPANIC BLACK PERCENT OF ADULT POPULATION HISPANIC PERCENT OF ADULT POPULATION DISTRICT LOCATION
17,992-0.38%25.5%4.1%Rocky Mount
27,972-0.63%5.3%1.1%South
38,335+3.89%10.1%2.3%West
47,912-1.38%3.1%1.4%Maggodee
57,852-2.13%3.2%1.2%North
67,796-2.83%2.2%0.9%Gills Creek
78,300+3.46%7.8%2.4%Union Hall

BOUNDARY LINES

Submitted for your approval

Proposed Election districts for Franklin County based on 2010 population

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Last altered: 24 March 2011

Last revised: 4 May 2011

visitors since 21 March 2011

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