Cayce council hears public concerns on proposed ward lines, defers first reading

The Cayce City Council on Jan. 16 held a public hearing on Ordinance 2025-03, a proposed redistricting ordinance establishing new municipal ward lines based on the 2020 U.S. Census and repealing prior district ordinances. Catherine Kelly of the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office presented the draft plan and the data behind it.

Kelly told council the city’s population rose about 10% since 2010, moving Cayce from roughly 12,528 to 13,781 residents and creating a new ideal district population of about 3,445. She said the benchmark report showed a total deviation of 54.74 percent across wards and noted state law requires a maximum range of 10 percent; RFA recommends a 5 percent target. Kelly said RFA’s work follows traditional redistricting principles — contiguity, compactness, minimizing precinct splits and attention to communities of interest — and…