At the October 6th, Ward 5 ANC and Single Member District meeting, the task force was presented with three ANC options in which they where to vote on. At the September 14, task force meeting the larger group voted to allow a smaller group, comprised of some of the task force executive board members, to create options for ANC's based on the feedback given by residents in attendance that night. Most of the residents and task force members wanted to see options for smaller, more neighborhood focused commissions. The executive body took the advice, went back to the drawing board and proposed the three options below.
While two of the three options proposed, do exactly what many in the group wanted, create smaller commissions, they make very little since. Starting with the dramatic change in smd boundaries. Several smd's where altered significantly and no longer meet the 1900 resident criteria outlined in the Office of Planning redistricting guidelines. Several neighborhoods where also split between multiple ANC's, which is bound to be a hurdle when dealing with hot button issues. The biggest blunder of all is the ANC that runs West to East across the ward, from New Jersey Avenue to Eastern Avenue. This particular ANC includes parts of the Bloomingdale neighborhood, Bates and Eckington along with over 5 others.
Voting on the below plans was further complicated because there where no maps that displayed the proposed options and the text for some of the smd's had errors or just where not complete at all. Despite the lack of information and concern from the audience that the plan was hard to visualize, a vote still took place. The plan that ended up getting the majority of votes was the 6 commission option. People in support said the option got their vote because it was the only one that seemed to keep their neighborhoods together. However, it does the direct opposite for the rather close Bates, Bloomingdale, Eckington and Edgewood neighborhoods.
Hopefully the group is open to feedback and takes a second look at whats been proposed prior to our next meeting and council review. It's no reason a plan like this, that seems rushed and not well thought out should be considered final. It would be great to see a few options that make smaller commissions, with neighborhoods that are relatively close and use the smd boundaries the task force agreed on originally.
Below are maps of what was proposed and option number 2 is what the majority of the voting members decided upon.
Option 1 has 5 ANC's
View Ward 5 - Option 1 in a larger map
Option 2 has 6 ANC's
View Ward 5 - Option 2 in a larger map
Option 3 has 3 ANC's
View Ward 5 - Option 3 in a larger map
Maps created by Geoff Hatchard
