Following a veto by Gov. McDonald and this week’s spring break, Virginia State legislators will convene in Richmond Monday with sufficient amendments to the Republican-controlled House of Delegates redistricting plan to assuage the governor’s concerns that too many local jurisdictions had been split up in the original plan.
The plan for Del. Jim Scott’s 53rd. District, including the City of Falls Church, remained essentially unchanged. Under the new plan, it will include all of the City of Falls Church; and part of Fairfax County comprised of the Fort Buffalo, Graham, Greenway, Marshall, Merrifield, Pimmit, Pine Ridge, Pine Spring, Shreve, Timber Lane, Walker, Walnut Hill # 1, Walnut Hill # 2, Westhampton, Whittier, and Woodburn precincts and part of the Camelot precinct. As expected, the approved State Senate redistricting plan shifts borders to move the 31st District, represented for 16 years by the now-retiring State Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, out of Falls Church, and bring State Sen. Majority Leader Dick Saslaw’s district into it. Only after the state legislative boundaries have been OKd will consideration of U.S. Congressional districts by undertaken, and it is expected that U.S. Rep. Jim Moran’s 8th District will continue to encompass Falls Church.
