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The Legislature's Redistricting Committee has scheduled meetings to give a final look at citizen proposals, and then start to adopt plans for new congressional, legislative and school board districts.
Sen. Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, the Senate chairman of the committee, said Friday that he hopes the panel will finalize all of its proposals by Sept. 10. He expects a special session of the Legislature to be called during the second week of October to consider and pass final districts.
But first, the committee has scheduled a daylong meeting on Aug. 19 beginning at 9 a.m. in Room 30 of the House Building at the Capitol complex. "We're going to spend most of that day looking at citizen proposals. In fact, we're going to be inviting some of the people who have made proposals to come in and explain them," Okerlund said.
As of Friday, 169 proposals had been submitted to the committee's website, RedistrictUtah.com, which allows people to draw their own maps. Two of every three maps submitted were for congressional boundaries, about one of every four were for legislative districts, and only 13 were for the school board.
On Aug. 22 at 9 a.m. in the same location, the committee will begin formal debate on final plans.
"We will be considering that day state school board plans, and may take action. I don't think we will get to an action on state Senate plans that day, other than to maybe narrow the field a little bit," Okerlund said. He said passing final congressional and state House plans would likely come in future, yet-to-be-scheduled meetings.
"I would really like to have something ready to go on all of [the plans] by about Sept. 10 so that we get it into the view of the public and into the hands of people considering running for office," he said. "It looks like right now we will try to do a special session sometime in the second week of October" to adopt final plans.
Okerlund said he has not seen much politicking among committee members to this point. "I think they are taking a look at what's out there and analyzing."
He added that many of the maps submitted so far — especially in the high-interest congressional districts — "are very similar."
Some Republican leaders have pushed to have all four new congressional seats include both rural and urban areas so that members of Congress would focus on problems of both areas. It could divide Salt Lake County into four slices, in what is called a pizza slice plan. Democrats say it would divide their one stronghold in the state in an attempt by Republicans to sweep congressional seats.
Democrats, and some Republicans, propose creating three urban congressional seats along the urban Wasatch Front, surrounded by a large rural district, in what is often called the doughnut or doughnut-hole plan. Several government watchdog groups have backed that, saying it holds communities of interest together better.