The Fayston Board of Civil Authority is reaching out to town residents for comments on a proposed redistricting plan that would split Fayston into two districts.
The Legislative Apportionment Board proposal would put Fayston residents south of Route 17 into a one-representative district with Warren and Waitsfield residents. Fayston residents north of Route 17 would be in a one-representative district with Moretown and Duxbury.
The Fayston BCA would like to hear from town residents who are affected by the proposal and also from anyone within the two proposed districts who has thoughts or ideas about the proposal.
“Fayston BCA anticipates a similar meeting as we had on this issue in 2011 where many stakeholders to the then similar proposal were present to discuss. Please join us on November 4, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. at the Fayston Municipal Building for a discussion on this topic. If you are unable to attend, please feel free to send any concerns or comments to
Currently all five towns are in a single district represented by Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, and Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield. Via email the pair explained that the goal for redistricting is to create single-member districts with populations of 4,287 and two-member districts with populations of 8,574.
If the proposal is adopted, it would result in Duxbury, Moretown and part of Fayston in a district with a population of 4,177 and Warren, Waitsfield and the other part of Fayston in a district with 4,174 people.
Grad and Dolan explained that districts should be created that preserve existing political subdivision lines, recognize and maintain patterns of geography, social interaction, political ties and commons interests and use compact, contiguous territory.
The timelines for the work give BCAs until November 15 to respond to the Legislative Apportionment Board which will consider recommendations and prepare a final proposal by November 29, 2021. The House government operations committee will hold public hearings in November-December in advance of the legislative session starting in January.
People can provide input through their town BCA and can also provide direct input to the Legislative Apportionment Board at this link:
https://sos.vermont.gov/apportionment-board/vermont-apportionment-board/
Dolan and Grad noted that the current proposal is a draft and likely to change and further pointed out that up until 10 years ago, Waitsfield, Fayston and Warren were in a one-member district, so the draft LAB proposal would go back to that.
“Moretown and Duxbury have been in a two-member district for decades. There is a healthy debate on one- versus two-member districts. The LAB draft proposal passed on a 4-3 vote,” the representatives wrote.
This proposal is a draft and very likely to change.
