At their regular meeting on Tuesday, the Ulster County Legislature approved a redistricting plan that will reduce the size of the Legislature from 33 to 23 members, eliminate at-large legislators, and create 23 new districts that each have a single representative.
The Ulster County Commission on Reappointment, which was appointed by the Legislature to draw the new districts, has posted PDFs of the new plan and detailed maps of each individual district on their website. They've also set up a public computer running the software they used to create districts from Census blocks; anyone who wants to see it in action can set up an appointment with the county's planning department to try it out.
The Daily Freeman liveblogged the meeting on Tuesday. And today, they've got some good coverage of the new plan, with a video of the hearing and a map of the new districts.
All but two legislators voted to adopt the new plan -- and the two that voted against it are facing some new opposition because of the new district lines. From the Times Herald-Record today:
The lone no votes came from Catherine Terrizzi, R-Wallkill, and Bob Aiello, R-Saugerties. Eleventh hour changes forced Terrizzi into a primary with Jack Hayes rather than Ken Ronk and moved Walter Frey into Aiello’s district, creating the potential for a primary.
Next step: The plan will head to Ulster County executive Mike Hein's desk for approval. Before Hein signs it into law, which he's expected to do, the public can comment on the plan at a hearing at 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 3, on the sixth floor of the Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair St., Kingston.
Here's the old district map that is being replaced by the current plan:
A few quick observations on the new map:
-The village of New Paltz is now its own district, separate from the rest of the town. Terence at the New Paltz Gadfly wonders if this will be good for the town:
This is good for the county, because multi-member districts are not only bizarre but ripe for dodging accountability, but is it good for New Paltz? The community has been studying consolidation for some time, and it should be interesting to see how having different legislators represent the village and the rest of our community impacts that process.
-Saugerties and Wawarsing have also been divided roughly along town/village lines, with the villages of Saugerties and Ellenville placed in their own districts separate from the rest of the township.
-Woodstock, which used to be lumped in with the large rural district that covers the northwestern corner of the county, now has its own district. (On the face of things, this seems to make sense. Woodstock's got its own unique brand of politics -- they probably ought to have their own district.)
-Olive, which was in a district with Hurley and Marbletown, is now part of that northwestern rural district that spans Hardenburgh, Denning, and Shandaken.
That's interesting. Olive, which shares the Onteora School District with Shandaken, Woodstock and Hurley, has been pitted against its neighbors in recent years by a change to school tax law that sent Olive's property taxes skyrocketing, and almost pushed Olive into seceding from the district. The so-called "large parcel" law has since been revoked by the school board, but the issue comes up every year, and some resentment between the towns remains.)
-The towns in the southernmost part of the county, which hitherto have been divvied up roughly along town lines, are now a lot more split up by the new district borders. Gardiner is still contained within a single district, but Wawarsing, Shawangunk, Plattekill, Marlborough and Lloyd are all divided by the new districts.
Readers: Any thoughts on how the new districts will affect your town? Let us know in a comment below.
