In Re Reapportionment of the Colorado General Assembly

828 P.2d 213, 16 Brief Times Rptr. 505, 1992 Colo. LEXIS 279, 1992 WL 60087

Opinions

Justice ERICKSON

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In In re Reapportionment of the Colorado General Assembly, 828 P.2d 185 (Colo.1992), we disapproved the Final Plan of the Colorado Reapportionment Commission and returned the plan to the Commission for revision, modification, and resubmission. Colo. Const. art. V. § 48(1)(e). We disapproved that part of the Final Plan which divided Pitkin County and the City of Aspen into House Districts 57 and 61, and the Commission was directed to consider alternative ways of achieving equality of population while minimizing county and city splits, and preserving compactness and communities of interest where possible. In re Reapportionment, 828 P.2d at 195-196. Moreover, the Perry Park portion of the Final Plan was to be corrected and the boundaries of House Districts 20 and 64 were to be redrawn to conform with article V. section 47(8). In re Reapportionment, 828 P.2d at 194. The Commission was also directed to incorporate the technical changes requested by Larimer and Boulder Counties. Id.Id. 828 P.2d at 200.

The Commission has now submitted a revised plan for the reapportionment of the general assembly. We conclude that the revised plan conforms with our directions and satisfies the constitutional criteria of sections 46 and 47 of article V. Accordingly, we approve the revised Final Plan.

I

The original plan submitted to this court divided Pitkin County and the City of Aspen into House Districts 57 and 61. We found that

the Commission’s explanation for dividing Pitkin County and the City of Aspen, and for the further division of Snowmass Village from Aspen, does not rise to the level of an adequate factual showing that less drastic alternatives could not have satisfied the equal population requirement of the Colorado Constitution. Furthermore, the explanation does not provide a basis for meaningful judicial review of the Commission’s decision. We, therefore, disapprove that part of the Final Plan which divides Pitkin County and the City of Aspen into House Districts 57 and 61. We return that part of the plan for reconsideration, revision, modification, and resubmission. If, after considering alternatives, the Commission concludes that the present Final Plan for Districts 57 and 61 is still constitutionally preferable to the alternatives, it may resubmit the present plan. In that case, the Commission should provide the court with additional information detailing the alternatives considered and the reasons for their rejection.

In re Reapportionment, 828 P.2d at 195-196. Upon remand, the Commission considered eight alternate plans for the boundaries of House Districts 57 and 61, and adjacent house districts. The alternative ultimately selected by the Commission (VIA) still splits Pitkin County into Districts 57 and 61, but the City of Aspen remains intact in District 61. Thus, the advantage of the revised plan for Pitkin County over the plan we rejected is that it eliminates one city split.

In addition to the revised plan, the Commission considered but rejected seven other possible plans. Alternative I kept all of Pitkin County in District 57 and split Eagle County. To maintain equality of population, the Town of Vail was included in District 57, but Glenwood Springs was divided. The Commission rejected this alternative because it split a city and offered no net improvement with respect to preservation of communities of interest. Alternative II was similar to the first, but did not split Glenwood Springs. It was rejected because of no net improvement in preservation of communities of interest and because Glenwood Springs, the county seat of Garfield County, was placed in a district separate from the rest of the county.

Alternative III retained all of Pitkin County in District 57 and made compensating adjustments in boundaries of districts to the west. The Commission discarded this alternative because it split both Garfield and Delta Counties three ways rather than two, as in both the original and revised plans for Pitkin County. Alternative IV, which kept Pitkin County whole in District 57 and Glenwood Springs whole in District 56, made up the population loss by including a part of Summit County in District 61. This plan was unsatisfactory because it split more counties than the original Final Plan. Similarly, Alternative V, which made population adjustments to the east and then north, was eliminated because it caused more counties to be split than the Final Plan.

Alternative VII placed all of Pitkin County in District 61. The Commission concluded that this alternative would split a community of interest in Lake County. In addition, this alternative would not address the concerns of limited access between parts of Pitkin County and the rest of District 61. See In re Reapportionment, 828 P.2d at 195. The final alternative, Alternative VIII, placed all of Pitkin County in House District 56. The Commission rejected it because it involved the same split of Eagle County and of communities of interest that led the Commission to reject the Alternatives I, II, IV, and V.

The Commission’s revised plan for Pitkin County and Aspen is similar to the plan we disapproved except the new plan does not split Aspen. For the first time, however, the Commission has provided us with a sufficient basis for judicial review of its actions and reasons for the necessity that Pitkin County be divided. We conclude that the Commission’s revised plan (VIA) for Pitkin County satisfies constitutional requirements. Colo.Const. art. V, §§ 46, 47.

II

In accordance with our directions on remand, the Commission has redrawn the boundaries of House Districts 20 and 64 to place all of Perry Park in District 20. In addition, the Commission has incorporated all but one of the technical modifications to the plan requested by Boulder and Larimer Counties. The Commission has determined that one of the Boulder County technical requests can not be incorporated in the Final Plan without upsetting the equality of population requirements of article V, §46. We therefore approve the Commission’s revised and modified Final Plan which was submitted to this court on March 19, 1992, and we order that the Commission file the approved plan with the Secretary of State no later than March 30, 1992.

QUINN, J„ dissents, and MULLARKEY, J., joins in the dissent.