Background/Summary:
By initiative of the people, a Charter provision requiring the establishment of six electoral districts was approved by the voters in 1989. Each district is represented by a councilmember elected by eligible voters within that respective district.
Pursuant to Federal Law and also City Charter, Article II, Section 2, the districts are required to be substantially equal in population and the City must have the district boundary lines redrawn following each decennial census. The City Charter further provides that redistricting shall occur following any mid-decennial census in which the City elects to participate.
On January 20, 2017 the Peoria City Council adopted Resolution 2017-07 establishing the legal basis for redistricting and the criteria against which all redistricting maps would be evaluated. To provide the public with information on redistricting and solicit their input, the staff Redistricting Committee created and maintained a Redistricting website, held 6 public open houses and leveraged traditional and social media. For the first time, the City also utilized an online mapping tool that allowed the electronic submission of proposed maps for consideration. Proposed maps and other public input were accepted through February 28, 2017.
The City received four (4) public input forms that are included in your packet. In addition, 39 maps were submitted through the online mapping software. Three maps were of the existing districts or a duplicate map of another submission leaving 36 maps for the staff Redistricting Committee to evaluate against the City Council adopted criteria.
Of those 36 proposed maps, 19 were eliminated for (a) not being contiguous, (b) for having more than one age-restricted master planned community in the same district, or (c) removing the incumbent from the existing district impacting voter continuity.
Of the remaining 17 proposed maps, many were very similar in appearance. Thus, the staff Redistricting Committee determined their priority would be to recommend to City Council five finalist maps that contained variation in addition to meeting City Council adopted criteria.
Attached to this Council Communication are all 36 maps with the first section containing the staff Redistricting Committee's recommended finalists maps, the second section contains all other maps that the Committee determined meet Council adopted criteria, followed lastly by those that the Committee determined did not meet Council adopted criteria.
Next Steps:
The next phase in the redistricting process is to present the finalist maps to the public for review and input. This will, again, be accomplished through 6 open houses, the Redistricting website and the use of traditional and social media. Public feedback will be accepted through April 21, 2017.
It is then anticipated that City Council will review all public input and consider a final map on May 2, 2017 to be used in the 2018 Council elections and be effective in January 2019.