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The City has begun the process to transition to district-based elections and will be drawing boundaries for those new districts to be ready for the November 2018 Council elections. 

It is essential for the success of this process that there is a shared understanding of neighborhood regions.  You are the person who knows your neighborhood best.  Please use the topics below to inform us on how you identify your neighborhood by describing your community characteristics, shared interests, views, or problems.

All comments received will be shared with City Council as part of the public feedback at future public hearings.

In addition to collecting information here on Speak-up, Santa Rosa,there will be opportunities for residents to engage in this discussion in person, sign-up and subscribe to receive email notifications (select "City Council Agendas, Minutes, and Videos") about upcoming community meetings & public hearings that are focused on district-based elections:

  • Community Meetings - 4-5 community meetings will be held around the City to answer questions and solicit input.

  • ​City Council Public Hearings - opportunity to be involved through the process of drafting and finalizing the maps (public hearing dates can be found here).  

Looking for background information on why district-based elections are coming to the City of Santa Rosa?  Please review the report item prepared for the City Council Meetings (found here).

1) How do your refer to your neighborhood (e.g. Sky Hawk, Montgomery Village, Roseland Creek, Coffey Park, South Park, historic area, etc.)?  Please describe the areas that you naturally include and/or exclude in order to define your neighborhood.

2) Describe what you think are your neighborhood's natural boundaries: what are the highways, railroad, main streets, creeks, trails, or other geographic features that begin and end in your neighborhood?

3) Please share any additional thoughts or concerns you may have about how districts lines may impact your neighborhood and/or nearby areas that you do not identify as being a part of your neighborhood.

Please be as specific as you can in your responses. 

Please click here to review additional correspondence submitted by email. 

11 Responses

Daisy Gomez almost 2 years ago
  1. Ridgway Historic District, the SRJC neighborhood.
  2. The boundaries of the Ridgway Historic District are: Ridgway Avenue (north), Mendocino Avenue (east), College Avenue (south), and Armory Drive (west).
  3. I identify SRJC as part of my neighborhood.
0 Votes
Joshua D almost 2 years ago

It is an interesting challenge to think about where my "neighborhood" begins and ends. Google maps was helpful to get my thoughts going.

  1. I live in the Coffey Park neighborhood.
  2. I'm sure that other people would draw a different box, but when I think of the Coffey Park neighborhood I think of a box bounded by: Dennis Lane (north), Coffey Lane (east), San Miguel Rd (south), and Barnes Rd (west). It could include areas further east to the creek, but Coffey Ln is a wide street so that's where it feels like the neighborhood would end.

  3. I'm not sure what concerns I should have so I don't have any right now.

0 Votes
Caroline Banuelos almost 2 years ago

1 & 2. I live on Dutton and W. 3rd, right outside of Roseland. I feel like W 3rd should be a part of Roseland. I'm close to Railroad Square but closer to Roseland. In terms of where I shop and do business, I rarely go to the Northwest and thus, don't feel apart of that area or neighborhood. I think the needs of the two areas are really different.
3. Ultimately, the number of voters in what will be my district is what will really matters. Equity is extremely important to this process, in my view.

0 Votes
Daniel Reynolds almost 2 years ago

1-Memorial 2- 4th to Sonoma E to somewhere around Montgomery village 3- A)Speeders, particularly on Talbot B)Vagrants in Doyle park (by which I mean those who do NOT want to avail themselves of services and benefits already offered to become productive members of society but instead just drink and hang out at the park. C) maintaining the health of the creek

0 Votes
David Cahill almost 2 years ago
  1. I live in the Junior College neighborhood.
  2. Its boundaries are roughly Steele Lane on the north, Franklin/North on the east, College on the south, and Mendocino on the west.
  3. I think district lines should not split our neighborhood. I also want to make it possible, in other districts, to have enough Latino voters in two of them that it is practical to elect two Latino people to City Council.
0 Votes
Roseanna Woods almost 2 years ago

I live in the Sherwood Forest area between Memorial Hospital and Montgomery Village. Boundries for me are Montgomery Drive, Alderbrook, Farmers Ln. and the upper end of 4th St. I am not clear on any specific issues to my neighborhood at this time.

0 Votes
Mike Duvall almost 2 years ago
  1. I have lived in Lomitas Heights, off of Chanate Road since 1986.

  2. I consider my neighborhood/catchment area to run from Fountaingrove to the north, College Ave to the south, Brush Creek to the east and Hwy 101 to the west. So my 'hood consists of Lomitas Heights, JC area, Hidden Valley, Brush Creek, Town and Country and portions of Fountaingrove.

  3. I would like to see district lines based off of the HWY101/Hwy 12 intersection as the center of four quadrants: NE, NW, SE, SW. Each of the quadrants would have one city council representative. There would then be an overlay of the two districts, west of Hwy 101 and east of Hwy 101 that would encompass the NE & SE quadrants and then the SW and NW quadrants. This configuration would ensure 3 representatives from east of Hwy 101 and 3 representatives from west of Hwy 101. Lastly, the 7th district would be an at-large representative who could come from any of the quadrants.

As an example, the top vote getters from each of the quadrants would be selected. The runners up from the east side or west side quadrants with the second most votes would be the next candidates selected and the at-large candidate with the third most votes would be selected. This configuration would guarantee 3 west side reps, 3 east side reps and depending on where the at large rep lived, a majority of east or west side reps. This system would allow candidates to either target specific quadrants, thereby keeping election costs in a more manageable realm, or two quadrants if they have political or financial backing to afford same. Theoretically a person could run an at-large campaign, but they should still have to garner more votes than the runners up for east or west side districts/quadrants.

0 Votes
Gregory Fearon almost 2 years ago

I live in the Town and Country neighborhood, between the Grace/Proctor Terrace and the Hidden Valley neighborhoods. We share interests with the junior college neighborhood on our west and the Montecito Heights neighborhood on our east. The City's historic district is on our southern border. My preference would be to draw a district which incorporates all of those surrounding neighborhoods. But then, our area has always dominated City politics. At large voting usually results in our neighbors ending up on the Council.

0 Votes
Ginny Doyle over 1 year ago

I moved to west Santa Rosa 1984 where I raised my 2 sons. Our "neighborhood" was the area around their High Schools; Santa Rosa High and Ridgeway High. Schools bring resources, partnership and community connections. I would like to see each new district include one of the existing High Schools. I live in the Junior College Neighborhood now. I am happy to be able to walk downtown, to the library and use public transportation. I am hopeful the new city districts will provide equity to new and long term residents. I am trilled that Roseland is part of our City and look forward to having them voting this year.

0 Votes
Steve Hillman over 1 year ago

We live in the area just east of Coffey park but west of 101. In the tubbs fire area. Plans 101 and 102 make the most sense as it keeps the northwest part of town in one district and the others seem to do the same regarding their neighborhoods. As you go up the plan numbers they just get more crazy. I was involved in supervisorial redistricting after the 2000 census and the first 2 or 3 plans we came up with were the most common sense. After that they just became too creative.

0 Votes
Lynn Fitzpatrick over 1 year ago

I live in Rincon Valley - to my mind this area is bounded by Hwy 12 to the south, Calistoga Road to the east, Brush Creek and Wallace road to the west and Harville/ and N Baird to the north. It might also include SkyHawk, Montecito Heights, Riebli Rd. I’m not sure if each self-identifies as a separate neighborhood or not.

High schools provide a natural venue for meeting, so I appreciate a previous commenter’s suggestion that each of the five comprehensive public high schools anchor one of the voting districts although I am not advocating for matching voting districts to high school attendance areas.

0 Votes