Public to County Council: Keep Communities Whole in Redistricting Proposal

For more than a decade the Baltimore County Council's districts have unified different communities inside artificial borders: Loch Hill and Towson in one district, Woodlawn and Randallstown in another.

But a proposed new that the council could approve as early as next month would divide those neighborhoods into different districts.

And that did not sit well with the approximately 100 residents who appeared at the council's public hearing Monday night to express their opinions about the map.

"Randallstown and Woodlawn go together," said Julian Jones, a 25-year resident of District 4, which for now includes both neighborhoods. "They go together like peanut butter and jelly. They go together and they should stay together."

The new map says otherwise.

Jones was joined in his position by many of his neighbors and by their District 4 representative, Councilman Ken Oliver, whom Jones challenged in the 2010 election.

The new map proposes to move the Woodlawn High School precinct, which is just north of Interstate 70, and place it in Councilman Tom Quirk's 1st District. The target population for each district is 115,293, though courts have allowed for a range between 109,528 and 121,058.

Ella White Campbell, executive director of the Liberty Road Community Council, said the change would "dilute the voting strength" of the 4th District, which is mostly African American. The change would also move federal jobs into Quirk's district.

"It would deprive District 4 of an enterprise zone," Campbell said. "District 1 would have essentially two and district 4 would have none."

Ed Crizer, chairman of the redistricting commission, said moving the one Woodlawn precinct would increase the voting strength of African Americans and set up the creation of a second majority-minority district in the future.

"We felt if there was a chance for a minority council person it would be coming out of the 1st District with that one precinct," Crizer said.

Oliver opposes the move of the Woodlawn High School precinct. Instead, he said he'd prefer moving the precinct that votes at Featherbed Lane Elementary School into Quirk's district.

Crizer said the majority of the commission made its recommendation based on keeping the two districts as compact as possible.

"I think you were affected the least," Crizer told Oliver. "The 1st and 4th Districts were affected the least."

"How can you say that when the district goes from 117,000 (people) to 110,000?" Oliver asked.

Residents of Loch Hill, a community of 144 homes on the western edge of Towson, also testified against part of the proposal that would move its 200 residents from the 5th District into the 6th District.

Tony Gross, president of the Loch Hill Community Association, said his neighborhood has more in common with Towson than areas of Parkville and Middle River, which would be in the new 6th District.

"We closely align with Towson and deserve to be in a Towson district in order to have our needs properly addressed," Gross said, adding that children from the neighborhood attend Towson area schools and the community was involved in Urban Design Assistance Team plan for Towson.

Russell Mirabile, president of the Rosedale Community Association, asked the council to rejoin communities that are part of the Rosedale area.

"Rosedale has been split down Route 7," Mirabile said.

"It's just a very small amount we're asking for," Mirabile said. "We're not asking to change the whole map."

How much the council is willing to tinker with the map is not clear.

David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, said the difficulty in changing the map is that a change to one district has an immediate effect on other districts.

"It's an imperfect map," said Marks, whose district stretches from Perry Hall to Towson. "There's a concern, though, that one change could open a Pandora's box."