PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles residents who live between the Eighth Street bridges would vote in the West End commissioners’ district in 2012 if the option that best meets district masters’ criteria is approved by the Clallam County districting commission.
Under “Proposal C” — one of five options that districting masters Gene Unger and Don Corson presented to the five-member commission Thursday — the boundary between Clallam County commissioners’ District No. 2 and 3 would shift from west Port Angeles to Valley Creek in central Port Angeles.
Under the same option, the line between District Nos. 1 and 2 would shift from McDonald Creek in Agnew to Boyce Road near Carlsborg. The boundary would veer west from Carlsborg along the Olympic Discovery Trail to the mouth of McDonald Creek.
Robin Hill and Klahhane Road would be taken out of District No. 1 and placed into District No. 2 under the option.
Other options would keep the Eighth Street bridges and Robin Hill in their current districts.
Move to the east
All five options move some boundaries to the east to account for the 10-year growth of the Sequim area.
Clallam County charter requires a districting master to recommend — and a districting commission to approve — new commissioners’ districts if the population of the largest exceeds the population of the smallest by more than 5 percent.
The boundary lines should run north-south.
Census 2010 data show that the county’s easternmost district — in the Sequim area — exceeds the population of the West End district by 6.13 percent.
All five options put the difference between largest and smallest districts under the 5 percent threshold.
Under Proposal C, the population of District No. 1 would exceed the population of District No. 2 by 2.5 percent, with District No. 3 in the middle.
Scoring system
Unger and Corson developed a scoring system to analyze the five options.
The criteria was based on:
■ Equal population.
■ North-south boundaries.
■ Geographically compact and continuous.
■ Whole voting precincts.
“This is without any reference to the citizenry desires because we don’t know what those are,” Corson said at the meeting.
“We’re going purely by what the charter has required.”
Unger and Corson provided color-coded maps of all five options and the current district alignment.
The commission voted unanimously to take all five options under consideration.
Public hearings
Public hearings were set for May 24, May 25 and May 26 in Forks, Sequim and Port Angeles, respectively.
Later Thursday, Chairman John Marrs said those dates are subject to change because of a mix-up with someone’s calendar
“If we can’t do it that week, we’re aiming for the week after,” Marrs said.
The hearings will likely be held at 7 p.m.
Clallam County commissioners are elected countywide in the general election.
However, only residents within a commissioner’s own district can vote in the primary.
“I think it’s also important to remind ourselves what this is not,” Corson said.
“This is not anything to do with PUD districts or libraries or fire districts or anything like that.”
Clallam County grew by 6,879 people between 2000 and 2010, from 64,525 to 71,404, with the largest growth in the Sequim area.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.