Politics & Government

West Hills Joins Chatsworth on District 12 Redistricting Map

Chatsworth Nature Preserve now located entirely within one council district.

The city's 21-member Redistricting Commission has released it's final maps after hearing citizen testimony at a series of public hearings.

Despite , that entire neighborhood, including all of the , has been moved from Dennis Zine's District 3 into Mitch Engander's District 12. Previously, only a piece of West Hills was in District 12.

The Commission will hold a concluding business session today at 4 p.m., at the Van Nuys City Hall, 14410 Sylvan St., Second Floor.

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In addition, City Council President Herb Wesson Tuesday released a schedule for three additional public hearings to gather input on new council district boundaries.

The City Council's Rules & Elections Committee, which is chaired by Wesson, will take up the new maps on Friday, followed by public hearings on March 5 in San Pedro, March 6 in Van Nuys and March 7 downtown.

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The committee includes Wesson and councilmen Mitch Englander, Jose Huizar, Tom LaBonge and Joe Buscaino.

The schedule calls for the full City Council to hold a final hearing on the maps on March 16.

"This review process includes opportunities for council members to propose revisions to the maps submitted by the redistricting commissions," Wesson wrote in a letter to City Clerk June Lagmay. "Expeditious adoption of any district changes is necessary to allow the City Attorney and Bureau of Engineering to prepare the final technical documents and ordinances necessary to implement any adopted changes in a timely manner."

The commission last week approved new council district boundaries that also angered some neighborhood and community groups, including some in Koreatown, Westchester and Toluca Lake.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has been highly critical of the Redistricting Commission, called the schedule compressed and said "it will not allow the public to participate at the commission level."

Perry introduced a motion last week asking for a more robust public hearing process than the one proposed by Wesson, including public input time scheduled for each council district and a "racially polarized voting analysis."

"I'm extremely concerned that my motion will not see the light of day," Perry said.

Perry and Councilman Bernard Parks, who lost lucrative parts of their districts and had their homes cut out of their current districts, have threatened legal action to block the new maps from going into effect.

"A lawsuit cannot succeed if it has no merit," Wesson spokesman Ed Johnson said in response to a question about how a court challenge would affect the process.

Perry's request for a racial voting analysis "seems to express a conclusion reached before the process has run its course and the final product considered," Johnson said.

The new maps gave the lion's share of Perry's downtown district to Councilman Jose Huizar and moved Baldwin Hills from Parks' district to Wesson's. The commission also moved the University of Southern California out of Parks' district into Perry's.

-- City News Service contributed to this report.


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