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Treasurer Rich Stampahar suggested to council that it change polling sites for Crofton residents to relieve congestion along Freeport Road.

Members agreed, however, that they need to consider a bigger picture -- the 2,000 new residents who live among four waterfront developments.

"We are set to have 2,000 more people (in that district) than five years ago," council member Marshall Treblow said. "We might be looking at a ward by itself along the riverfront."

Each of the five districts represented by council members is targeted to have about 800 homes.

With the completion of the four living developments -- Continental Communities, Lighthouse Harbor, The Cove and Chapel Harbor -- Councilman Chuck Vogel, who represents District 1, will have three times as many constituents as his peers.

Treblow said he'd rather review a redistricting proposal than change current polling sites to Band-Aid the problem.

"I don't want to drag 200 people to the furthest end of their district," he said.

Council member Joe Frauenholz also said he'd favor an analysis of neighborhoods and their distances to polling sites in an effort for equity.

"Half of the fourth ward (in District 2) probably has to go too far to vote," he said, saying that many of the residents in the Valley Drive area travel to vote at St. Joseph Church along Dorseyville Road.

"Analyzing all that will take a lot of time, but I'm in favor of looking at it," Frauenholz said. "If it makes it easier for people to vote and they have better representation, I would be for it."

Tawnya Panizzi is a staff writer for The Herald in Aspinwall.

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