March 28 Redistricting Decision by Board of Directors

News Articles
03/25/2002

The AC Transit District Board of Directors held a public hearing on March 21 on plans to redistrict its five geographically based wards for electing members to the Board of Directors. (Two Directors serve from at-large seats and are subject to a vote of the entire AC Transit District electorate.) Redistricting is legally required at least every 10 years to bring wards into balance with regard to population. At the March 21 public hearing Director Creason requested consideration of an additional plan (Plan 15), in addition to consideration of Plans 13 & 14. The Board was advised that all three plans met the legal requirements: community of interest, cohesiveness, contiguity, integrity, compactness of territory, topography and geography.(Maps, detailed maps, boundary descriptions and statistical data for each of the proposed plans are included on this site.) After closing the public hearing, the Board voted to continue the decision regarding the selection of Plans 13, Plan 14, or Plan 15 to a special meeting to be held on March 28, at 1 p.m. in the Board Room at the District’s General Offices, 1600 Franklin Street in downtown Oakland, one block from Broadway and midway between the 12th Street and the 19th Street BART stations. You can use public transportation to get there: Bus lines 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 40, 43, 51, 58, 72, 73, 82 and 88, or BART via either the 12th Street or the 19th Street stations.

Summary of Plans 13, 14 and 15

During the process of analyzing the population changes within the five wards, it became clear that the population shift in the District was generally to the south. This resulted in a requirement that Wards 1, 2 and 3 receive additional population while Wards 4 and 5 had to lose population. Generally, the shift in ward boundaries had to be to the south. In comparing Plans 13, 14 & 15, note that generally Wards 1, 4 and 5 are the same in each plan. The fundamental difference between the plans is how they handle the redistricting of Wards 2 and 3.

Plan 13

Plan 13 sets out to meet the required criteria, including compactness and community of interest, while not drawing two directors into the same ward. As a result it reorients the City of Alameda and a portion of Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood from its current alignment with Ward 3 into an alignment in Ward 2. In compensation, it realigns Oakland’s Lakeshore-Grand Avenue, Rockridge, and northern Montclair neighborhoods and Berkeley’s campus and Claremont-Elmwood neighborhoods into Ward 3 from Ward 2.

Plan 14

Plan 14 would also meet the required criteria, but would place the directors of Wards 2 and 3 into the same ward. The two districts would remain largely as they are now, but Ward 2 would move southerly by picking up the City of Piedmont and parts of the Oakland neighborhoods of Montclair and Trestle Glen.

Plan 15

Plan 15 also sets out to meet the required redistricting criteria, while not drawing two directors into the same ward. This plan follows the current District configuration by maintaining the cities of Alameda and Piedmont in Ward 3. It puts more of the Fruitvale neighborhood in alignment with downtown Oakland, Chinatown, and West Oakland. This plan allows Ward 3 to extend from the City of Alameda, around the Fruitvale to include East Oakland and the northern half of the City of San Leandro, the Oakland Hills, including the northern part of Montclair, and the City of Piedmont. Ward 2 contains Emeryville, parts of Berkeley, and the Downtown, Chinatown and West Oakland segments of the City of Oakland. Wards 1, 4, and 5 are fundamentally the same as in Plans 13 and 14.

Below you will find two ways to view the redistricting maps:

The first (more simplified approach) provides a general outline of the District, followed by outlines of each ward, identifying the major streets that indicate the change from one ward to the next ward, together with text labels that describe in simpler terms the general boundaries of the proposed wards.
The second (more legalistic approach) provides a general outline of the District depicting the boundaries of the various wards, with a legal description (metes and bounds) of the boundaries for each ward.

View 1:
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Plan 13 Maps by Ward
Ward 1
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5
Plan 13 Simple Descriptions
Plan 14 Maps by Ward

Ward 1
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5
Plan 15 Five-Ward Map
Plan 15 Ward Statistics
Plan 15 Census Tract Information by Ward

Ward 1
Ward 2

Plan 14 Simple Descriptions
Plan 15 Maps by Ward

Plan 15 Simple Descriptions

Ward 1
Ward 2 Plan 14 Simple Descriptions
Plan 15 Maps by Ward
Ward 1
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5

Plan 15 Simple Descriptions
View 2:
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Plan 13 Five-Ward Map
Plan 13 Ward Statistics
Plan 13 Metes and Bounds
Plan 13 Census Tract Information by Ward
Ward 1
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4
Ward 5
Plan 14 Five-Ward Map
Plan 14 Ward Statistics
Plan 14 Metes and Bounds
Plan 14 Census Tract Information by Ward