I made most of the following remarks on HOD map B6 during the October 6th virtual meeting which covered the Commonwealth’s central district. Good afternoon Commissioners, My name is Pete Costigan and I live in Ruckersville in Greene County. I’d like to comment as a private citizen briefly on SD maps A4 and B5 and not so briefly on HOD map B6. Regarding Senate maps A4 and B5, I support entirely the recommendation made today by Greene County resident, Mark Heinicke. Mark recommends that the Commission replace Buckingham County with Greene County in the senate district 31 map. Regarding HOD map B6, I’d like to propose that the northeast corner of Augusta County be swapped out of HOD district 81 and replaced by Greene County. Since that northeast portion of Augusta County borders Rockingham County, I believe it makes more sense to attach that portion of Augusta to Rockingham County as part of HOD district 69. Here are my four reasons for making this proposal. First, HOD map B6 currently includes all of Greene County, much of Rockingham County and part of Page County in district 69. The bulk of the proposed district’s land is in Rockingham and Page Counties, both of which are separated from Greene by the Blue Ridge Mountains. I object to this grouping for the same reasons the Commission has heard many other residents of counties on both sides of the Blue Ridge object to being grouped with residents in counties on the mountain’s opposite side. Greene County residents have more common interests with Albemarle County than they have with either Page or Rockingham. Specifically, Greene County residents regularly drive to Albemarle for shopping and medical care. In addition, every day, many Greene residents drive into Albemarle to their jobs at the National Ground Intelligence Center in northern Albemarle, to State Farm and to various UVa facilities in Albemarle among other employers. In fact, a significant percentage of Greene County’s employed residents work in Albemarle. In contrast, relatively few drive the 30-35 miles west over the Blue Ridge to jobs in Rockingham or Page. Second, Greene is a small county with about 55% of its 20,000 residents living in two of its five voting precincts. Those two precincts – Ruckersville and Midway – are located mostly south, east and west of the intersection of east-west route 33 and north-south route 29. Route 29, a major highway, reaches the Greene/Albemarle border in less than four miles south of this intersection. Third, Greene County, along with Albemarle, are among the counties served by the Thomas Jefferson Planning Commission. Through the Commission’s Legislative Services program, the interests of the region’s localities are represented before the state legislature and other state policymakers. Much of this effort occurs at the General Assembly during the January-March session each year. Augusta County is not served by the Thomas Jefferson Planning Commission. Augusta County is served by the same planning district that serves Rockingham County. Fourth. Like Rockingham and Page Counties, all of Augusta County is on the western side of the Blue Ridge and on the opposite side from Greene and Albemarle. As always, I thank you for considering my proposal and for the difficult but important work you are doing. Pete Costigan Ruckersville, Va, 22968 434-466-2384

I am a Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, where I teach Election Law. As an election law scholar and a citizen of Albemarle County, I urge the Commission to keep in mind that Albemarle/Charlottesville is a community of interest and should be maintained as such. While this plan is much better than the Republican advisors' plan, which dilutes our voice in the House of Delegates by fragmenting Albemarle County into 3 districts, this plan could be improved by redrawing HD-81 to include the rest of Albemarle County that is not included in HD-80 with Nelson County, with whom we share common interests, including shared media markets, economic interests (including agriculture and tourism), and commuting patterns.

Again, thanks for keeping Blacksburg whole and combining it with Radford. The university communities have much in common, including shopping and cultural interests as well as employment. It makes no sense to include rural Giles County in this district. It would be better to group Christiansburg and some of the precincts adjacent to Blacksburg town limits into the district with Blacksburg and Radford. Ideally it would be great to have Montgomery County only split between two districts rather than three.

I agree that Albemarle should be in only 2 Districts, one comprising Charlottesville and some portion of Albemarle. These are not only contiguous but share much of the same infrastructure. The second District could be the rest of Albemarle plus Nelson County. Though the mountains no longer define "communities of interest," we are supposed to be preventing dilution of representation. Thus much depends on how we decide what the common interests of a community are.

While this map is preferable to the current A7 alternate, I do think it makes more sense to add Nelson or Greene to Albemarle instead of parts of Augusta County as both Nelson and Greene are part of the same community groups, as seen in our shared health district and library system. That being said, I much appreciate that this map doesn't unnecessarily divide Albemarle into three districts.

As a resident of Albemarle County and 2019 candidate for the House of Delegates in the 59th District, I applaud that this map keeps Albemarle County in only 2 Districts. Please keep Albemarle as unified as possible and do not divide us into more than 2 Districts. Some members of this Commission have expressed concern about the way this map draws in some of Augusta County into the District with Albemarle. One compromise that directly addresses this concern would be to remove that portion of Augusta and replace it with Nelson County, our neighbor to the south with whom we share a community of interest. This would be a compact and sensible District. The fracturing of Albemarle County for the past decade by our current political House of Delegates map has sowed confusion among the people of our area, bred apathy, diluted our ability to participate in the political process, and muzzled our voice in state-level government. Consider the current 59th District. It carves out the southern portion of Albemarle, draws in the eastern part of Nelson, and then stretches out to include much of Campbell and all of Appomattox and Buckingham. This District is so gerrymandered that nobody even tried to challenge the incumbent in 2013 or 2015. When I campaigned for Delegate in 2019, many people south of Nelson expressed doubt that we even lived in the same District. Many people in the northern part of the District thought that David Toscano, who represented Charlottesville and the surrounding area at the time, was their Delegate. The map created a deep disconnect between the people and our House of Delegates. Please do not allow this to happen again for the next decade. Instead, please adopt the compromise I have proposed that keeps Albemarle as unified as possible, maintains the community of interest in Albemarle and Nelson County, and directly addresses the concern expressed by members of this Commission about the mountains between Augusta and Albemarle. Thank you.

It is important to keep Prince Edward County together in one district so that we can have one legislative representative who is representing and speaking on behalf of the entire county. This will help to maintain the entire county as a community of interest. As a county with two colleges represented, it will also ensure that those populations are able to stay together in terms of representation. When a locality is split I believe it has the opportunity to hinder the level of attention that might potentially be provided by a legislator towards that localities issues of interest. A united Prince Edward is best for the business and economic interest of the county as well.

These maps for Danville and Pittsylvania County are better than previous ones. I would recommend district 87 including more areas a little further south like Whitmell and Laurel Grove. Since district 89 runs to the outskirts of Martinsville I would still like to see a district that has Danville and Martinsville in the same district.

B4 District 13 should include Sideburn Precinct – Ox Road is a major thoroughfare and neighborhoods east of it associate more with Kings Park West. For example, the current map splits the Blue Oaks area, which includes Robinson Secondary School. It should be included wholly in District 13. Similarly, the Middleridge neighborhood east of Ox Road shares more in common with Kings Park West than the sparser neighborhood of Station Hills to the southwest. Adding Sideburn increases the current population to 92,091 however; this increase could be offset by *removing* Hummer precinct, adding it instead to District 6 under this plan. Hummer precinct is east of the 495 “Beltway” and shares little in common with everything west of it. In other words, Hummer precinct is bordered on the west by a multi-lane freeway and shares more social, economic, and civic interests with the Annandale and Holmes Run areas. I’ve attached Current and Proposed changes