City Considers 20 Different District Election Maps

The Santa Barbara City Council waded through 20 proposed maps for the city’s new six council districts but delayed a final vote pending last-minute adjustments. The hope is to create boundaries that don’t split San Roque into two districts and that keep Oak Park and the Brinkerhoff Street area in the downtown district. The new districts will go into effect for this November’s council race and resulted as a settlement to a lawsuit alleging Santa Barbara’s traditional at-large system of elections yielded “racially polarized” results. A final vote is scheduled to take place at a special council meeting next Monday.