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Editors Note

The Red & Black has published two versions of this article,one in Englishand one in Spanish.

The Red & Black ha publicado dos versiones de este artculo,un en inglsy un en espaol.

The Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission received a detailed update on efforts to redraw the countys commission districts to be in line with population changes from the 2020 census during a Tuesday evening work session.

The new map draft, which was created by the ACC Geospatial Information Officein conjunction with the county Board of Elections, would see changes to the boundaries of Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 8 and 10, while the remaining districts would not be changed.

Joseph DAngelo, the countys geographic information officer, said the county is now composed of 1,809 census blocks, up from 1,797 10 years ago due to overall population increases. Census blocks are small statistical areas bounded by either visible features such as roads, streams and railroads, or nonvisible boundaries such as property lines, school districts or county limits, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In total, with the new draft map, 26 census blocks would shift into a different district, representing 2,824 residents whose county commission district would change.

DAngelo broke down the changes to each district. With the draft map, District 1 would receive 10 new census blocks totaling 859 residents that are currently part of the eastern side of District 2, near the airport. District 8 would receive five census blocks from District 2, totaling another 296 residents.

District 10 received only a minor edit, with one census block of 78 residents shifting into District 7. District 4 had 10 census blocks containing 1,591 residents moved to District 7.

DAngelo said the districts are considered balanced as long as the districts raw populations are within 10% of one another. With the new map, District 10 would be the most populous district, with 13,535 residents, and District 5 would be the least populous with 12,243 residents.

We feel pretty confident that this is the most minimally-disruptive set of edits that we couldve hoped for, DAngelo said.

District 4 Commissioner Allison Wright thanked the Geospatial Information Office and Board of Elections for their work, but expressed concern over the part of District 4 that was removed in the draft.

This is not the area that I wouldve trimmed away. The population explosion, I believe, is more on the Barnett Shoals side of my district, and this area, in particular Gran Ellen, to divide that street, a persons mailbox is going to be in one district and their house in another district, Wright said.

District 3 Commissioner Melissa Link thanked staff for trying to be unobtrusive with redistricting, but noted that the current districts were drawn by the state legislature a decade ago. She felt they were drawn with purely political purposes in mind.

District 10 Commissioner Mike Hamby argued that the political nature of the current districts meant the map should be changed more.

These maps were, as I suppose [Link] stated, drawn for political purposes, Hamby said. But if theyre still the same maps, are they still not drawn for the same political purposes, but now theyre OK? Are we OK with the status quo?

Hamby asked if any more majority-minority districts had been added in the new map, or if more accommodations had been made for them. He said the county should ensure it acts to promote equity and equality.

DAngelo noted that as the drafts are drawn, Districts 2, 3 and 9 are majority-minority and District 5 is on the cusp.

Residents can view more detailed information about the redistricting on the countys website, as well as access a public comment form regarding the issue.

The new map will need to be approved by the commission and the state before the new districts go into effect.

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Athens commission receives deep dive into county redistricting efforts - Red and Black