Version two of redistricting plan would send the 74th District to Rt. 30 corridor
By Mike McGann, Editor, CoatesvilleTimes.com
The new 74th State House district would include much of the Coatesville area.
HARRISBURG — Maybe the second time is the charm.
And once again, it appears that the Coatesville area is going to get a new state house district — but a different one than originally planned.
The state Legislative Redistricting Commission announced its second plan for redistricting state House and state Senate Thursday afternoon — and the new proposed districts would shift a number of area towns into new districts.
The first version of the LRC’s map was thrown out earlier this year by the state Supreme Court, which ruled too many municipalities had been split and a more equitable map could have easily been created (one of the parties to the suit challenging the district plan, Amanda Holt, had created her own plan that did not split any municipalities).
While the state Senate plan is fairly similar to the plan presented earlier this year, the state house district plan is greatly different from both the current house districts as well as the first proposed plans.
The big local change: the 74th District, formerly held by the retiring Camille “Bud” George which had been located just northwest of Altoona would come the the middle of Chester County. Coatesville, Caln, East Caln, Downingtown, East Fallowfield, Modena, Parkesburg, Sadsbury, South Coatesville and Valley would be placed in the 74th, similar to the previously proposed 45th. West Brandywine would end up in the 155th District, while West Caln would end up in the 26th.
Under the new map, the Coatesville area is split between the 19th District of Andy Dinniman and the 44th District of John Rafferty.
The senate plan offers few changes. Most of the area will be in the revised 19th District of Andy Dinniman, including Coatesville, East Fallowfield, Modena, South Coatesville, and Valley. Caln, East Brandywine and West Brandywine will be in the 44th District currently
County wide, Chester County would now have nine seats, including the new 74th District in the greater Coatesville area. West Chester is no longer split between districts — in fact the lone municipality with a split in the house plan is Phoenixville, which would be split between the 155th and 167th districts.
In terms of state Senate seats, Chester County would continue to have four: in addition to the 9th and 19th, the 44th, currently held by John Rafferty would continue to represent much of the northwest portion of the county, while the 26th, currently held by Ted Erickson, would cover a small portion of the northeast part of the county.
The new districts will not take effect until the 2014 legislative elections and will likely face another round of legal challenges.
