The Coles District to get 2,500 new constituents in overly-political process, Republicans say

As county leaders voted on a newly-proposed magisterial district map, Republicans say Democrats made the map-making process a political one designed to help a colleague.

Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega will pick up about 2,500 new constituents who live south of Manassas, around the semi-rural Yates Ford Road area. The rural subdivision had been in the Occoquan District, represented by Kenny Boddye.

In September, Supervisors hired ARCBridge Consultants to draw new maps, required every 10 years meant to reflect population changes. Supervisors agreed to collaborate on boundary line changes.

“Supervisor Boddye and I never spoke,” said Vega, a Republican who collaborated with other elected colleagues on changes, including Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry, a Democrat. “It seems like there is a different set of standards depending upon who the supervisor is.”

Before voters elected Boddye in 2019, the candidate vowed not to vote to develop the county’s rural area. Earlier this year, Boddye, a Democrat, voted in favor of rezoning 340 acres of land off Route 234, clearing the way for 99 new homes in the semi-rural area.

Since taking control of Prince William Board of County Supervisors in January 2020, Democrats have voted to approve new development projects along the boundary of the rural area, over the objection from the Board’s three conservative members.

Moving the voters who live in a rural area from the Occoquan District into the Coles District represented by Vega, a Republican who has consistently voted against rural-area development, benefits Boddye’s political career, said Brenstville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson.

“This Board over and over again has shown that politics and power trumps principle,” she said.

In a party-line vote on Tuesday, December 7, Democrats voted 5-3 to approve a proposed magisterial district map to present to residents during its meeting Tuesday, December 21. At that time, residents may comment on the new boundary lines, which will be in place until the 2030 Census.

Democrats denied the allegations, saying they deferred to the lines drawn by consultant ARCBridge. On November 23, Vega said she reviewed the map.

On November 30, Chair-At large Ann Wheeler emailed new maps to her fellow Board members. The emails, on which the consultants were not copied, reflected the land swap between the Coles and Occoquan districts.

“That’s when it really started to feel wrong,” said Lawson.

“I was trying to [the emails] out before the weekend,” Wheeler replied. “If you had an issue with them, why don’t you pick up the phone and have this conversation?”

Vega said she tried to speak with Boddye about the new map. “I wish we had a chance…to have a discussion,” Boddye replied.

According to the proposed map, Boddye will pick up about 6,000 new constituents between the Kerrydale area of Dale City and the county’s McCoart Government Center on Prince William Parkway. Meanwhile, Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry picks up about the same number of new constituents as the district expands west into what had been the Coles District, picking up new residents who live between the Lindendale and Orangewood areas off Dale Boulevard.

“These changes are all driven by small-area plans introduced by [Supervisors who served on the 2016-2019 Board],” said Boddye.

There are few boundary line changes to most of the county’s other magisterial districts — Brentsville, Gainesville, Potomac, and Woodbridge.

Priti Mathur, principal at ARCBridge Consulting, presented the proposed maps to the Board of County Supervisors. She has over 25 years of GIS consulting, application development, and database experience. Mathur and county government staff received comments from multiple constituents asking officials not to move them from a magisterial district.

County staffers did not ask for the street addresses of those who commented, and used natural boundaries like rivers and streams to determine where to draw district lines, said Nikki Brown, a Prince William County Government spokeswoman who worked with Mathur.

Last month, county supervisors voted against creating an eighth magisterial district for the county, the second-largest jurisdiction in Virginia. Since 2000, more than 80,000 people have moved to Prince William.

Each new magisterial district will contain about 69,000 constituents with the increased population considered. If supervisors voted to create a new district, each would have had about 60,000 constituents.

While the county hammers out its new magisterial district map, new congressional district and General Assembly maps released last week by the Virginia State Supreme Court are now open for public review.

Under the plan, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, spanning the western suburbs of Richmond north to Culpeper, represented by Democrat Abagail Spanberger, relocates to include Prince William and Stafford counties, a portion of northern Spotsylvania County, and the cities of Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Manassas Park.