COMM. 42.13 from M. Wille re Plan 40 adjusted

Home

Margaret Wille Attorney at Law 65 -1316 Lihipali Road Kamuela, Hawaii 96743 Tel: 808 -854 -6931 margaretwiIle@mac.com October 1, 2011 To: Redistricting Commission Re: Map 40 Suggested "Tweaking ": PLAN 40 ADJUSTED (as submitted here and as will be presented at the public hearing) Several Commissioners and a few members of the public suggested some minor revisions to accommodate concerns about the divisions between the Districts on the southern portion of the County. Attached is a revised Plan 40 with the following adjustments. I will bring photos of the affected boundaries. 1: Comment: The Wailuku River needs to be the boundary between Council Districts 1 and 2. Adjustment made. Note: On original Plan 40, a small bit of District 2 was over the Wailuku River): Adjustment made. Folks in Hamakua would prefer not to be combined with any of downtown Hilo, and would rather be one large rural District] 2. Comment: Council District 2 should include the mauka (upland) area following Wailuku River boundary and not just be separate from its upland. Adjustment made. [U On current map 40 the mauka area above District 2 is instead shown as part of District 1. This change does not affect population.] 3. Comment: Entire Volcano Village should be kept together preferably with a portion of Puna, and not just as the tail end of Kona (Upper and Lower Puna is good but Volcano does not want to be by itself without any of Puna.) Adjustment made. Note: Adjustment made such that entire village of Volcano —upper and lower as well as Fern Forest area kept together —but given population distribution, this area should be part of District 6 (southern half of island from Caption Cook to Volcano Village and Fern Forest.) This will mean Puna gets two districts of its own (upper and lower), plus Volcano Village will be a major voting block in District 6 stretching from Volcano National Park to Kealakekua Bay State Park and Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park. The alternative is to have Volcano Village combined with Puna, means that one of the three Puna districts gets combined with Hilo -which would more likely dilute that Puna or Volcano vote, than if combined with the rest of the southern portion of the island (even though it is geographically a large district). 4. Comment: District 8 should extend as far north as Saddle Road, rather than Saddle Road being part of District 9: Adjustment made. S. Comment: Needs some minor "cleaning up ". Adjustments made. Note: Some minor revisions to keep within the population distribution based on above changes and some unassigned ocean areas corrected. COMM. 42.13