Redistricting panel advances SPEARS 3 map amid public calls for stronger minority opportunity districts

The Orange County Mid Decennial Redistricting Committee voted 10-3 on May 22, 2025, to advance a map submitted by member Jimmy Affant, identified in materials as SPEARS 3, for further legal review and public consideration.

The vote came after about an hour of public comment and committee discussion in which community advocates pushed the committee to create majority or opportunity districts that increase Black and Latino voting power, and several commissioners and committee members urged maps that keep municipalities and neighborhoods intact.

Affant, a committee member who presented SPEARS 3, said his guiding principle was “least disturbance” of existing districts. He described the plan as minimizing changes, leaving most county municipalities intact and splitting only the City of Orlando among multiple districts. Affant said he adjusted District 5 by consolidating contiguous neighborhoods along Colonial Drive to avoid what he described as repeatedly splitting communities, and created two new districts (proposed Districts 7 and 8) to meet population requirements under the census-driven…