One Leesburg District

Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors approved a Redistricting plan for the County's Magisterial (Supervisor) Districts. That plan, a slight modification of the Miller 5 plan that has previously been discussed, was approved by a vote of 5 to 4. It looks something like this:

Leesburg Today explains the modifications that were made during the discussion before the Board yesterday.

Among the changes made to the published Miller 5 plan was to move the area north of Hamilton into the Catoctin District; move Hillsboro into the Blue Ridge District; and move the Oak Grove area from the Sterling District to a Sterling/Ashburn District. - Leesburg Today

Under this plan the Board maintained one Leesburg District that contains most, but not all, of the residents of the Town of Leesburg. It was impossible to retain all people who vote in Town elections, because the population of the Town (42,616) exceeds the maximum allowable for a single Magisterial District (39,039 + 5%). Some precincts at the southern end of Town that vote in Town elections will not be represented by the Leesburg Supervisor, but instead by the Catoctin Supervisor, as they are today. Some precincts that were part of Catoctin, but within the Town (for example, Balls Bluff) will be represented by the Leesburg Supervisor next year. It is not a perfect plan for Leesburg, but it is a lot better than the alternatives which were proposed, which would have cut up the Town much more severely. It is regrettable that some Town residents will still be unrepresented by the Leesburg Supervisor, but with the legal population limits imposed, that was unavoidable.

The bottom line is that our Leesburg District was maintained as unified with the Town insofar as that was possible. This is a win for all of us here in Leesburg.

Many thanks to Supervisors Burk, Kurtz, McGimsey, Buckley and Burton for listening to the people who spoke before the Board, asking them not to split Leesburg. Your attention and service is deeply appreciated.