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As an appointed County Commission, Commission business and processes are subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act. ARC21 will be supported by staff in the County Administrative Office, the County Clerk and Elections staff, Information Services and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) staff, and County Counsel.
Thank you for visiting the Santa Cruz County 2021 Redistricting webpage. The purpose of this webpage, which went live in May 2021, was to provide one location where residents could find information on and participate in the redistricting process of supervisorial district lines for Santa Cruz County.
The 2021 Redistricting process began with a report to the Board of Supervisors on February 23, 2021, and the appointment of an Advisory Redistricting Commission shortly after. All reports to the Board can be found under the Meetings & Hearings tab. This tab also contains agendas, minutes, and videos of all meetings held by the Advisory Redistricting Commission, Public Workshops, and Public Hearings held by the Board of Supervisors. Meetings were made accessible virtually and in person whenever possible and translation services were available when requested.
During the entire redistricting process, we worked to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act and new State laws enacted in 2019 and 2020 which were designed to encourage public participation and increase transparency in the process. In addition to Public Workshops and public input gathered at meetings, participation was encouraged through to early availability of tools to capture information on communities of interest. More information on Communities of interest and public engagement efforts can be found under the Communities of Interest tab.
After several Advisory Redistricting Commission meetings, four Public Workshops, and four Public Hearings, the 2021 Redistricting process concluded with the adoption of final maps for redistricting on November 16, 2021, which can be viewed under the Mapping & Data tab. This tab also contains information on the 2020 Census data used in creating final maps.
The purpose of the webpage now is to serve as a recordkeeping tool documenting the efforts and outcomes of the redistricting process. State law requires that this webpage be made available to the public for 10 years. Information on the 2031 Redistricting process will be added to the Resources tab as it becomes available.
Every ten years, local governments use new census data to redraw their district lines to reflect how local populations have changed. Click the links below to learn more.
The County of Santa Cruz has had redistricting task forces to produce various plans and maps for Board of Supervisor’s consideration and eventual adoption for the past three redistricting efforts in 1991, 2001, and 2011. With the passage of the Fair Maps Act and other state legislation, there were some changes in state law as to the membership and responsibilities of the various types of redistricting commissions.
After every Decennial Census, districts must be redrawn so that each district is substantially equal in population. This process, called redistricting, is important in ensuring that each board member represents about the same number of constituents. In Santa Cruz County, the Board of Supervisors is responsible for drawing supervisorial districts. The Board appointed an Advisory Redistricting Commission (ARC 21) to assist with this work.
Redistricting is done using U.S. Census data, which is released on April 27, 2021. It is required that the data be adjusted so that the prison population in California is apportioned to their last home address, and then be made available for counties. The apportionment work is performed by the Statewide Database at UC Berkeley. The County estimates that usable data will be available in mid-to-late October 2021. For the County of Santa Cruz, the redistricting process must be completed by December 15, 2021.
Redistricting determines which neighborhoods and communities are grouped together into a district for purposes of electing a board member. ARC 21 and the Board of Supervisors will seek input in selecting the next district map for our supervisorial districts. You have an opportunity to share how you think district boundaries should be drawn to best represent your community. You can choose among the pages on this website to find out more about how the process works, and where to access online forms to describe and map your community.