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Residents of Pine Hills called for a single district during the Orange County Mid-Decennial Redistricting Advisory Committee’s fifth meeting on April 10 at the Meadow Woods Recreation Center in District 4. The district is represented by Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero and includes wide swaths of east and southeast Orlando, stretching to the Brevard and Osceola county lines.
Pine Hills, situated in unincorporated Orange County, is currently split between District 2, represented by Commissioner Christine Moore, and District 6, represented by Mike Scott. It's a divide that some residents say impacts the neighborhood’s representation and ability to organize for change.
Elijah Jean-Baptiste, a freshman at Evans High School and a member of Future Leaders United (FLU), told the committee that the district split has “unnecessarily divided” his community. He recalled seeing a resident wearing a “North Pine Hills” shirt to a Pine Hills Community Council meeting as a “significant” example of the area's separate identities.
“What good is a community divided?” Jean-Baptiste said. “If we can’t even join together, how can we tackle bigger issues? Here's a start — combining Pine Hills into one district.”
Bernice Jean-Baptiste, a senior at Evans High School and member of FLU, echoed the demand for a single, unified district.
“I will not tolerate or settle for anything other than that,” she said. “Having one elected commissioner or representative is the only way for Pine Hills to thrive because it would make it easier for our voices to be heard but also hold them accountable if you disregard what we want for our community.”
Pine Hills resident Anthony Jackson, who said that District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore isn’t involved with the neighborhood, also said he wants one commissioner to represent the community as a whole,
“I feel like Pine Hills isn't really being as treated as it should,” Jackson told the committee. “I feel like [Moore is] neglecting it, and it’s not the same from District 6. I see [Commissioner Mike Scott] at events, and not to say that she's not doing her job, it's just saying that it might be too much for her not being able to actively participate … It shows that a large community such as ours should be a part of one district.”
At least one commissioner admitted there was no real reason for the Pine Hills “community of 12 miles” to be split in two. District 5 Commissioner James Auffant chalked it up to “old-fashioned thinking,” a reference to an old redistricting practice that used roads like Colonial Drive as a dividing line.
The advisory committee addressed the pushback it's received in recent weeks from residents concerned that the redistricting process will disrupt their communities. County district boundaries will certainly change. To create eight districts from the existing six, each district is to be cut by approximately 75,000 people. District 1, which has seen the most recent growth, will lose approximately 100,000 residents, according to committee member Angel De La Portilla.
But committee members reiterated that the idea to add additional districts didn't originate with the them — it was a November ballot amendment. The committee’s task is to implement the mandate to add two additional districts approved by Orange County voters in November by nearly 51 percent.
"It is now law," said Commissioner Nicole Wilson who represents District 1. "It goes into our charter ... [which] is our mini constitution. I just invite the public to move with us along the way, knowing the public did endorse this."
The first map approved for consideration by the committee was submitted by District 3 Commissioner Mark Arias. It will be presented as part of the agenda at the committee's April 15 meeting at the Goldenrod Recreation Center in District 5.
Residents may submit their own maps provided a committee member sponsors the map for consideration, said Tico Perez, co-chair of the advisory committee.
Map presenters have five minutes to walk the committee through their submission, followed by 15 minutes of discussion between committee members. The committee then votes to keep the map until the next meeting where it will be voted on again or dismiss it.
“I think last [redistricting] about 60 percent of the maps were rejected for one reason or another and about 40 percent survived into our last couple meetings where we started to narrow it down,” Perez said. “But right now, if a map meets all the legal requirements and isn't patently offensive to a majority of us, that map will survive into the next subsequent rounds.”
To create and submit a map for consideration, start here.
