Pasco Real Estate Blog

Pasco is the fastest-growing city in Washington, which is generally good news for residents: lots of new businesses, stores, job opportunities, places to eat, things to do, and so forth.

But it’s giving the city government something akin to a political migraine.

The problem? As Pasco grows, the city has to keep redrawing its council districts because state law requires those districts to be sized so that each district’s population is within 10% of all other districts. With all the growth happening in West Pasco these days, this has become a real problem. The Herald had a good article a few days ago explaining the challenge:

Since the last election, District 4 — north of Argent Road stretching generally from Road 44 to Road 84 — has grown to be roughly 15 percent, or 1,500 people, larger than the other districts.

Trimming 500 to 1,000 people from the district would have a ripple effect on adjacent districts, requiring precincts to be swapped until balance is restored.

But keeping council members in the districts they represent poses one constraint on the task, as does the large size of some of the precincts. The districts also have to be reasonably compact.

“It’s like stretching a rubber band,” [Gary] Crutchfield said. “Pretty soon it reaches a point of breaking and it can’t do what it’s intended to do.”

What’s interesting is that, while the city is working on redrawing current district lines, they’re also considering tossing out the entire current structure of the city council and replacing it with something closer to the 3-district setup that Kennewick uses.

This is worth watching in the coming weeks and months — it’ll impact the whole city one way or another.

Thanks for reading this article on the Pasco Real Estate Blog. If you arrived here looking for specific real estate information, or would like to speak with a friendly, fun, professional, and low-pressure real estate agent, please contact Cari via her web site or call her directly at 509 – 430 – 5342 and she’ll be glad to help. Thanks again for visiting!