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City Manager Griffin presents redistricting plan built from 2020 census blocks
Summary
City Manager Griffin presented a starting redistricting plan using 2020 census blocks and a target district population of 2,466. He walked council members through proposed block transfers, demographic breakdowns for several blocks, and asked councilors to review maps before the regional commission meeting.
City Manager Griffin presented a detailed redistricting proposal to the City Council that uses 2020 census blocks to rebalance district populations toward a target of 2,466 residents per district.
Griffin said the materials include two deposited maps, labeled Plan 0 (current district outlines using 2020 numbers) and Plan 1 (a draft with earlier changes). He told councilors some census blocks show zero population and that contiguity constraints require moving whole census blocks. "There is absolutely no way to get this deviation number to 0," Griffin said, describing the technical limits of achieving perfect parity.
The manager listed district-level deviations and examples of proposed moves. For District 1, he recommended adding Census Tract 2048 (population 135; recorded in his printout as 111 white, 23 black, 1 other) and Census Block 2015 (reported as 6 white, 2 black, 4 other) from District 4 to reduce the district's deviation. For District 2, he proposed adding Block 5013 from District 5 and moving Block 3003 (about 235 residents on the printout) from District 4 to District 2, with smaller blocks (for example, 3011 and 3015) shifted among adjacent districts to square the totals.
Griffin emphasized that the numbers he presented were a starting point and asked members to meet with him individually on any areas that give them "heartburn" before the council takes the plan to the regional commission, where staff will run precise deviation calculations in real time. He acknowledged errors in his printouts and said he would correct census-block identifiers and follow up with councilors.
Council members asked for map zooms and localized clarifications: Griffin referenced neighborhood names (Carrington Woods, Cedarwood, Tanglewood, Elmwood) and street boundaries (South Columbia, West Hancock, West Franklin) when describing moves. He also noted one commercial tract near Publix that did not appear in the census-tract map and said he would ask regional staff to clarify whether it contains residential population.
Griffin closed by asking councilors to review the handouts and to contact him for individual follow-ups; he said he would send meeting dates to councilors by email. The council did not take any formal action on redistricting at this meeting.
