New lines to be drawn for El Dorado County districts

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - South Lake Tahoe, Meyers, and Tahoma will remain in District 5 of El Dorado County, but its western border will be moving to include more territory.

After every census, the population of the political districts is reevaluated across the country to ensure equal representation, and when necessary, district borders are changed. Lines cannot be redrawn to favor or discriminate against a political party.

With a growing population in the western part of El Dorado County, their district borders are shrinking while the borders of lower populated areas are moving outward.

On Wednesday, November 3 at 9:00 a.m., the County is holding another workshop ahead of the December 15 deadline for final maps to be submitted. The workshop is hosted by El Dorado County Surveyor, Registrar of Voters, County Counsel, and the Chief Administrative Office.

The special redistricting meeting will be held at 330 Fair Lane, Placerville and it will be live-streamed on Zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89814720584.

According to the 2020 census data, the total county population equals 191,185, which means each of the five supervisor districts in every alternative must have a target population of 38,237. Each district’s assigned population must remain under the 1.0 standard deviation of the
target population. The population difference is the assigned population subtracted from the target population. Finally, the percent-off target is calculated by dividing the target population by the population difference.

The El Dorado County redistricting alternatives were created using the 2020 Census Redistricting Data newly released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data includes information such as census block boundaries with the total population and number of housing units within each block. When creating the alternatives, roads and rivers were included and often utilized to create recognizable district boundary lines. Each alternative was based on a primary community of interest. A community of interest (COI) is a neighborhood or group of people who have similar interests and policy concerns and would benefit from being kept in a single district.

Examples of a COI would include cities, CSDs, community regions, census-designated places, and rural centers. In addition to the primary COI, each alternative takes into account additional COIs in an attempt to preserve as many communities as possible. When assigning census blocks to a district, a common method was to begin at the west or east end of the County and move across along the highway 50 corridor to the opposite end.

Once the primary COI was taken into account, the remaining census block populations were assigned based on secondary COIs and recognizable boundaries where possible.

The Three Alternatives::

City Based Alternative – Revised #1

This alternative used the City Based Alternative as a starting point for drawing districts as requested by the Board per the October 14, 2021 public redistricting meeting. It adjusts the district boundaries to prevent major communities from being split between two districts. These include, but are not limited to, Cameron Park (defined using the Cameron Park Community
Services District Boundary), El Dorado Hills Specific Plan (including Serrano) , Pollock Pines (using the Census Designated Place boundary), Carson Creek Specific Plan Area, and the Divide, defined as the large land area including the communities of Kelsey and Garden Valley to the South, Cool to the West, the Placer / El Dorado County line to the North, and Silver / Slab Creek to the East. In this alternative, District 1 fully encompasses Serrano, Carson Creek, and all Specific Plans. District 2 includes Cameron Park and a majority of the South County. District 3
contains Placerville, El Dorado Diamond Springs, and the Camino and Mosquito communities. District 4 includes Shingle Springs, Rescue, the Divide, and the majority of the North County. District 5 combines the community of Pollock Pines with South Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Basin. CSDs, CDPs, Specific Plans, rural centers, and cities were also utilized to prevent as many communities of interest as possible from being split.

City Based Alternative – Revised #2

This second revision of the City Based Alternative maintains all Specific Plans (SPs), aside from the Bass Lake SP in District 1. District 2 contains the remainder of the Bass Lake SP in addition to the entirety of Cameron Park (defined using the Cameron Park Community Services District boundary) and the majority of the South County. District 3 includes Placerville, Diamond Springs El Dorado, the portion of South County north of Sand Ridge Road, and Camino. District 4 encompasses Shingle Springs (defined using the Shingle Springs Census Designated Place boundary), Rescue (defined using the Rescue Rural Center boundary), ‘The Divide’, defined as the large land area including the communities of Kelsey and Garden Valley to the South, Cool to
the West, the Placer / El Dorado County line to the North, and Silver / Slab Creek to the East, and much of the North County. Lastly, District 5 contains South Lake Tahoe, the Tahoe Basin, Pollock Pines, and extends down south of Pollock Pines to include more of the Sly Park Hills and Sierra Springs communities, as well.

Pollock Pines Alternative

The Pollock Pines Alternative was developed at the request of the redistricting team with the purpose of putting Pollock Pines in a District other than 5. In order to do so, much of the North and South County need to be included in District 5 to make up for the loss in population. Starting on the East side of the county, District 5 includes South Lake Tahoe West
to Fresh Pond and Jenkinson Reservoir, South to Somerset and Mt. Aukum in the South County, and includes Mosquito and Volcanoville to the West in the North County. District 3 combines Pollock Pines, Camino, Placerville, and much of the El Dorado - Diamond Springs community. District 4 contains Shingle Springs, Rescue, and much of ‘The Divide.’ District 2 encompasses
Cameron Park and the South County from just South of Diamond Springs – El Dorado to Somerset and Outingdale. District 1 contains all El Dorado Hills Specific Plans in their entirety