Growth in southeast and northeast Lincoln accounts for the major changes in a proposed redistricting map for the City Council’s four geographic districts — a once-in-a-decade effort to adjust for population changes.
Under the proposed map prepared by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department, District 2 in southeast Lincoln would lose a chunk of its western edge to southwest Lincoln’s District 3 to even out the population between the fastest-growing district and the other three quadrants.
Another change is shifting a portion of the western edge of northeast Lincoln’s District 1 to northwest's District 4, prompted largely by the growth sparked in northeast Lincoln by the sewer projects in the Stevens Creek watershed basin.
The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed map Monday at 3 p.m.
Planning Director David Cary said his office developed the proposed map after getting revised precinct boundaries from the Lancaster County Election Commissioner's Office, and staff did its best not to divide neighborhoods or precincts.
Many of the changes were minor, moving lines slightly to accommodate changes in the precinct boundaries, he said. Mapping software made the process — which happened in a compressed timeline because of the delay of census information — easier, Cary said.
Planners are studying annexation of an area between Pine Lake and Yankee Hill roads and 70th and 84th streets, and that was part of the rationale for the shift in south Lincoln boundaries, though mostly it was rapid growth in the southeast part of town.
“District 2 historically has been where year-to-year growth has been happening,†Cary said. “We know it will continue to happen. The district grew most over the past 10 years in population.â€
Shifting the western edge of District 2 from 48th Street to 56th Street between South Street and Old Cheney Road will move about 6,000 people into District 3.
The area includes College View and the Madonna campus, Cary said, and it keeps all of College View in one district instead of dividing it into two.
In the northwest part of town, an area that used to be in District 1 — west of 27th Street from Havelock Avenue to about Alvo Road — would now be part of District 4.
Northwest Lincoln neighborhoods that would move from District 1 to District 4 include Stone Bridge Creek, North Hills, Charleston Heights near Kooser Elementary School, Hartland's Garden Valley and Bicentennial Estates.
The change in northwest Lincoln makes sense, Cary said, because it makes 27th Street the dividing line.
The proposed map also moves a swath of land in west Lincoln — essentially along West O Street west of U.S. 77 — from District 4 to District 3, prompted primarily by changes in the voting precincts, Cary said.
Each council district includes slightly more than 72,500 residents.
The City Council is divided into four geographic districts represented by James Michael Bowers (northeast), Richard Meginnis (southeast), Jane Raybould (southwest) and Tammy Ward (northwest). The next city election is in 2023.
Sändra Washington, Bennie Shobe and Tom Beckius are at-large council members elected earlier this year.
Last week, the Lancaster County Board approved its redistricting map. Cary said the biggest change in the county was to add more rural area to District 1, moving its southern line from just south of Pioneers Boulevard to Saltillo Road.