A recent county wide referendum has led to a commission that is redrawing Baltimore County’s councilmanic districts in order to create two additional districts—but their first proposed map threatens to divide us.

NOTE: This is not about changing school district boundaries. Instead, it refers to the local political districts within the county that elects your representative on the county council. Your councilperson plays an important role in shaping your community—they help allocate funding during the county budget process, assist residents in accessing county services, collaborates with stakeholders to promote legislation, and, most of all, makes key decisions about land use and development in your area.

The current proposed plan shifts five of Catonsville's and Arbutus'-area neighborhoods into a new district centered 10 miles away stripping us of meaningful representation and weakening our ability to advocate for our community's needs.  These changes affect everyone, not only people targeted for redistricting that vote at Westowne and Maiden Choice Elementary, Charlestown, and Western Tech.

This isn’t just a map change—it’s a blow to smart planning, community influence, and local accountability.

Worst yet there is no reason to do this.  Keeping our community whole does not,  IN ANY WAY, threaten the goal, required by law, of increased minority representation on the council. If anything, the current plan hurts the very people that increased minority representation is suppose to help.  

Under the current proposal, District 2 would inherit a disproportionate share of aging neighborhoods along the city line—areas suffering from decades of disinvestment, aging infrastructure, and struggling schools. Many of these neighborhoods are also targeted for complex redevelopment under the Master Plan. Burdening a single district with so many challenges undermines the ability of its future representative to deliver effective and equitable change.

📍 Why keeping our community together matters:

• Preserves our influence as stakeholders regarding planning around transportation networks and Master Plan designations that define communities.  The more influence a community has, the more decision makers need to work closely with them.
• Helps to negotiate community benefits from development project and holds elected officials accountable in case they fail to realize equitable benefits for everyone and not only powerful donors, namely developers.  Council persons approaches vary.  For instance, Councilperson Izzy Patoka recently negotiated $500,000 for community improvements from one bank pad site in his district while our Councilperson, Pat Young, changed zoning for Whalen Properties  to build a HUGE MEGA DEVELOPMENT alongside Spring Grove without asking anything for district one. Nothing. This stuff matters.
• It upholds the legal requirements of compact, contiguous districts that the current map fails to provide.

In addition to signing this petition you can ✊ Take action now!

Email your opposition using the content of this petition to: CouncilmanicRedistricting@baltimorecountymd.gov

Email and call your councilperson Pat Young to remind him: 

1. He’s on the record saying that community input is critical to this process.  
2. We have already provided the largest number of written testimony county wide.
3. You disapprove that he has failed to inform his constituents about this important matter and of the direction his appointee has provided to the commission regarding the needs of our community.  He can be reached at council1@baltimorecountymd.gov or 410-206-5415

By signing this petition you are saying that Catonsville and Arbutus deserve to stay whole. Our voices are strongest when we stand together.

Sign and share this petition to demand a fair, equitable and community-centered redistricting maps.