Town Clerk Planning for Two New Precincts

With the 2010 Census over and done with, Laurence Pizer is waiting for the numbers to tell him what he already knows: As usual, Plymouth is getting bigger­­.

Plymouth has approximately 9,000 more residents in 2010 than it had in 2001, when the last U.S. Census was completed.

Pizer expects that when the Census data finally arrives, which it should by Dec. 31, it will show that more than 58,900 people call Plymouth home. That means that the town needs two more precincts added to the 14 it already has.

As required by state law, a precinct can include no more than 4,000 residents, which means each will ideally have about 3,850 residents. It's up to Pizer and his staff to carve the new pieces into the jigsaw puzzle. Fortunately, he said, he's been planning for this since 2006.

The lay of the land, the sheer size of the town, and the number of people spread over it all combine to make Pizer's job even more difficult. This month the U.S. Census should send Pizer the official total for the entire town, but he doesn't expect the breakdown by precinct to arrive until April.

In April, with Town Meeting and the Town Election around the corner, Pizer will have the additional task of creating new precincts.

Traditionally, the town clerk has begun the process in the northeast corner of town and proceeding down the coast. West Plymouth will most likely have three precincts; Precinct 8 will be in the southeast corner of town.  

The goals are to make voting as easy as possible, not divide any neighborhoods, and make sure Route 3 does not divide any precincts, particularly in the southern part of town.

"The general direction we're taking is let's make every effort to make a precinct a neighborhood whenever possible," Pizer said sitting at his desk. "Which we were dramatically unsuccessful at doing in 2000 with the Ponds of Plymouth."

The town's geography doesn't make the task easy. Saquish, at the tip of Duxbury Beach, is part of Plymouth and has traditionally belonged to Precinct 1. In 2000, Pizer tried to put Saquish in Precinct 4, to the consternation of Saquish's few year-round residents.

"I put Saquish in Precinct 4, which includes Plymouth Beach, but the residents came to me and said 'We're Precinct 1,'" Pizer recalled. "So I asked them how they get to the polling place and they said they usually take a boat. I asked them where they dock and they said at Plymouth Beach. I said that's in Precinct 4, and the polling place is much closer for you than Precinct 1, and they said 'We're Precinct 1.' So, I put them back in Precinct 1."

Buttermilk Bay residents have a difficult time getting to the polling place regardless of what precinct they're in, since it's almost impossible to leave Buttermilk Bay without going through Bourne.

The Pinehills will also be a factor for the first time. The development was in its infancy in 2000. While Pizer usually wants polling places located in public buildings, in the Pinehills case, he may make an exception. He said the private community has offered one of its buildings as a polling place, and he plans to accept it.

"There's no law saying we have to have more than one polling place, but no one place has the parking spaces we need," Pizer said.

It's interesting to see how and where Plymouth's population has grown over the decades by looking at old precinct maps. In the 1970s and '80s West Plymouth expanded dramatically, in the '90s it was the Ponds and in the last decade the geographic region of the Pine Hills has been developed. In the near future, Pizer looks at continued growth in the Pinehills development as well as the River Run development in South Plymouth. Perhaps surprisingly, he also expects new residential development in one of Plymouth's older sections: waterfront condominiums at Cordage Park could dramatically increase North Plymouth's population.

Selectmen have not opposed Pizer's plan, but the Town Clerk expects plenty of questions in the coming months.

All cities and towns in the state are supposed to receive census block data in April and will need to redraw their maps in June. Census blocks are established by the federal government based on the data gathered through the U.S. Census. The blocks cannot be altered but must be used as puzzle pieces to build the town's precincts.

Pizer plans to schedule public hearings between April and June. Once selectmen approval the new map, Pizer will present it to the Local Election District Review Commission between June and August. The new map would then be instituted before the end of the year and could be a factor in the Congressional election in 2012.