The Chula Vista Districting Commission held its first of five community workshops Tuesday night, attracting about 45 people to Bonita Vista Middle School.
Attendees learned about the districting process, how districting will affect them and also provided input for the seven commissioners.
The commission is in charge of forming four city council districts to be used in future city elections, changing the election system from a citywide election to a district election, which was approved by voters in 2012.
The mayor will still be elected at-large.
The main concern from community members included keeping the Asian Pacific Islander community united.
“Chula Vista is interested in community interests and I think this is a good opportunity for the Asian American and the other groups to make a great, rich district,” said Tom Hom, who resides in Otay Ranch.
Edward Batoctoy Aparis, co-founder of the nonpartisan Civic Education and Policy Advocacy Network, said his group did a year’s worth of outreach, surveying and community meetings to discuss and seek input from the Asian Pacific Islander community.
He said based on his organization’s research he found that the Asian Pacific Islander community in east Chula Vista wants to remain intact.
Aparis proposed a districting area that will keep the Asian Pacific Islander community together as well as enrich other cultural and economic groups.
“On behalf of our API community partners, we propose a destination area called the Asian Pacific American Cultural Economic Corridor,” he told the commissioners.
“The Asian Pacific American Cultural Corridor is an inclusive diverse destination for all people to enrich the already cultural and economic dynamics of Chula Vista.”
He suggests that the corridor start from the intersection of East Naples, going south on Oleander to Oleander and East Palomar Street section. Then it will run along East Palomar to La Media, where La Media turns into Otay Lakes Road.
Mark Liuag, who is the planning commissioner representative on the Growth Management Oversight Committee for the city of Chula Vista, said he wants to see all four districts mapped in such a way that it brings economic parity.
“The east side is much richer, much more affluent than the west side,” he said. “You can really easily end up with very rich and very poor districts.”
He also said that Chula Vista will continue growing toward the east, so he suggested forming the boundary lines horizontally instead of quadrants to maximine the city’s growth in the coming years.
Jerome Torres, chair of the Chula Vista Districting Commision, said he understands the concerns of the Asian community.
“The thing that stuck out in my mind is how the Asian, Filipino community is organized,” Torres said. “And that they really understood the process and that no doubt they have some expectations.”
The next two workshops are scheduled for Saturday, April 11, with one at 9 a.m. at MAAC Charter School, 1385 Third Ave., and the other at 3 p.m. at Greg Rogers Elementary School, 510 E. Naples.
