What is the BEST way to make the language more precise for the underlined part of this sentence?
Excerpt from 2000 California Census: Employment
State of California, Dept. of Finance, Demographic Research Unit, Summary File 3 Analysis

In general, the lowest unemployment rates were found in the counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area, the mountain counties along highways 1-80 and U.S. 50, and the coastal counties surrounding Los Angeles County (but excluding that county itself) as shown in Figure 6.1.
A) and the excluded Los Angeles County, which is within the coastal counties that surround it.
B) and the coastal counties excluding the surrounding Los Angeles County itself as shown (in Figure 6.1.)
C) and the coastal counties surrounding Los Angeles County but not considering Los Angeles County itself as a county that is included in this data.
D) and the L.A. coastal counties. Note: Los Angeles County itself, however, is not to be included in the counties that surround it when considering the data shown in Figure 6.1.