It starts at the state legislature folks. My experience with "non-partisan" redistricting (see: New Jersey) is that it eventually becomes dominated by poltical hacks of one party or another anyway.
No offense to Californians, but how come you guys always feel the need to make a friggin "ballot initiative" out of every issue instead of voting for those who represent your interests, which is what a REPUBLIC is all about. Just curious...
Sounds like you agree with me, although, as I note below, you're mistaken in a key respect about what's going on in California.
Similar to what's occurred in Florida, or (probably) worse so, California's liberal Democrat legislature has "leveraged" a very narrow statewide vote advantage into nearly a 65-35% advantage in seats in the state legislature.
To correct such abuses, a number of jurisdictions, inluding Oregon and Iowa, have line-drawing commissions staffed by retired judges. The lines are to be drawn without reference to party registration and the like and, instead, primarily with reference to traditional "communities of interest" and natural boundaries like rivers and hill ranges. In several elections, it seems to work well; elections are more competitive overall.
But here's where you're off-base. The only way in which California can change the way in which district boundaries are drawn, is by state constitutional amendment. And there are only two ways to do that here. One starts with a 2/3 vote in both chambers of the state Legislature. Obviously THAT will never happen, because the Democrats have rigged the game: THEY're the ones benefitting from the gerrymandering and hence never will vote to end it. The second way is via statewide initiative vote, which comes about through the all-too-familiar signature-gathering, etc. Yes, Californians do that initiative crap too often ... but in this case, it's the only way.