MADISON — Redistricting is underway in Madison.
The City Council discussed plans at Monday’s work session to redraw city council districts to ensure equal representation. Rapid growth in Alabama’s ninth-largest city has caused some city council districts to swell in population.
Mike Slaughter of Slaughter Associates, the city’s redistricting consultants, began the presentation with two plans.
“Whenever we obviously make any changes that can be a domino effect if it impacts one it’s going to impact at least another one and then we have to balance the numbers along the way,” he said.
Redistricting is required by state law when there is a deviation of greater than 10% in the total population between the smallest and largest populated voting districts as compared to the ideal population.
City Council Member Connie Spears stressed the importance of accommodating for future growth. Spears represents District 2 which largely lies in Limestone County.
“Currently District 2 is going to have to lose approximately 42% of its population, which is huge compared to the changes in other districts,’ Spears said. “And, because of that, we want to make sure that we err on the side of giving a little bit more space for growth in District 2 and the other districts that go into Limestone County where we see the most potential for growth.”
According to the city website, every 10 years jurisdictions with City Council districts evaluate whether a change to their district boundaries (redistricting) is needed based on the most recent U.S. Census population data.
While reviewing the two plan options, council members also expressed concern over dividing neighborhoods.
“My only comment, and others voiced it, as much as possible try to keep neighborhoods together to avoid confusion down the road,” said District 7 Councilman John Seifert.
After trying a number of adjustments to the lines on the maps in real time, the districts remained unbalanced.
Explaining the results, Slaughter highlighted the difficulty of managing both numbers and locations.
“Geographically doesn’t always work numerically,” he said.
Another public meeting is tentatively planned for Oct. 9; the council hopes to adopt the new district map by Oct. 23.
Gesturing to the city council, then the audience, Slaughter said a plan must be decided.
“There’s an infinite number of plans we could do here and there’s probably way more plans that will not make everybody happy whether you’re sitting here or whether you’re sitting here but ultimately, we’re going to have to agree on and adopt a plan,” he said.
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