Alameda County Board of Supervisors Approves Redistricting Map

Alameda County has nearly completed the thorny task of redrawing its supervisorial districts based on the 2010 U.S. Census. 

The county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a new district map at its meeting on Tuesday.

The new boundaries keep the city of Pleasanton intact — including the newly annexed Staples Ranch and unincorporated Happy Valley — but move it into the district represented by Supervisor Nate Miley (District 4) from the one represented by Scott Haggerty (District 1).

Dublin, previously split between Districts 1 and 4, moves entirely into District 1 in the final map. 

The shift represents the only major change in district boundaries from the current map.

Alameda remains in District 3, along with San Leandro, San Lorenzo and parts of Oakland.

District 1 includes Livermore, Fremont, Sunol and Dublin.

District 2 includes Hayward, Union City and Newark.

District 4 includes Pleasanton, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview, and parts of Oakland.

District 5, under , includes Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont and parts of Oakland.

Miley, who serves as board president, congratulated the board for getting through the redistricting process “in a collegial manner.”

“I think it’s been a good exercise,” Miley said, adding that he was content to represent Pleasanton going forward.

“I know Supervisor Haggerty will introduce me to the Pleasanton community,” Miley said.

The supervisors’ adoption of the new map, Map E_1, all but ends a month-long process in which citizens and local government representatives lobbied for competing proposals. The Board of Supervisors must take a second vote on the map on July 26 before it becomes final, but board members indicated they weren’t likely to change their minds before then. 

A significant shift in boundaries in the southern part of the county was necessary because the population there has exploded in the past decade. District 1 now has nearly 30,000 more people than it ought to.

Meanwhile, the comparatively petite Districts 3 and 4 are more than 5 percent undersized.

A Tri-Valley group called the Alameda County Citizens Redistricting Task Force, which is closely affiliated with the Tea Party Patriots, would have split Hayward into two separate districts to remedy the imbalance, keeping the Tri-Valley (including Pleasanton, Livermore, and Dublin) in a single district. The Tri-Valley area also includes San Ramon and Danville, but those communities are in Contra Costa County.

Nevertheless, dissenting voices were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at emilier@patch.com.