Redistricting board chooses map that puts the Northern Valley in a more rural district

Alaska’s redistricting board has made its choice for new House district maps, and the Northern Susitna Valley will be in with some new communities if all goes as currently planned.

Of the multiple redistricting options, both from the board itself and outside groups, the one that was chosen late last week puts much of the Northern and Western Mat-Su in the same district as most, but not all, of the Denali Borough.

The new district stretches north to Anderson and south past Point MacKenzie.  It includes, Houston, Big Lake, Talkeetna, Susitna, Trapper Creek, Chase, Denali, Healy, and Denali National Park. but not Cantwell.   It also includes part of the Settler’s Bay area on Knik-Goose Bay Road.

Cantwell and the entire Denali Highway, are placed into a very large Intererior district that stretches from Kaltag in the west to past Chicken in the east.  That district goes north to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Gates of the Arctic National Park.

Also missing from the new district, which is currently numbered District 30, is Meadow Lakes. All addresses on file with the Alaska Public Offices Commission for Representative David Eastman are in Meadow Lakes.

While a House map has been chosen, the Redistricting Board still has more work to do.  On Monday, the board heard public testimony on the next step of its process, pairing house districts to form senate districts.

The board has until Wednesday to make its final determinations, but that may not be the end of the process, either.  The maps drawn in 2010 were subject to court challenges, and the current iterations did not take effect until 2013.