District 3 City Councilman Chip Collins’ district will see the most changes under a redistricting proposal being considered by City Council.
District 4 Councilman Gabriel Sterling drew the new maps and unveiled them at the council’s March 5 meeting. Sterling, who was first elected to city council in 2011, drew the original city district maps in 2005.
City Council will discuss the new district maps at two consecutive City Council meetings before officially adopting the changes. The hearings will occur on March 19 and April 2. City Council will be able to consider adopting the maps on April 2.
“What we had to do is we had to follow the one-man, one-vote rule of the Constitution and we tried to have as little deviation as possible from the ideal district size and try to split as few precincts as possible, and we only split two precincts in the entire city,” Sterling said.
District 3 now extends eastward along Hammond and of Mount Vernon Highway to the city limits, picking up the neighborhoods of Dunwoody Springs and Dunwoody Chace.
“It’s interesting to me because I pick up some I believe apartment and or condominium complexes as well as a part of the commercial area in the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts area,” Collins said. “That’s new to me and will give me something new to think about and get involved with. I think I’ve got the only district that touches both the western and eastern boundaries of the city.”
The most noticeable changes occur in District 5, which will lose portions that will be added to Districts 3 and gain portions from District 6.
District 5, represented by Councilman Tibby DeJulio, will now end at Roswell Road on the western side of the district except for two small pieces of District 6.
“There’s basically no change to my district,” DeJulio said. “My boundary will be Roswell Road and Hammond Drive.”
District 6, represented by Karen Meinzen-McEnerny, will gain some of District 5’s current territory located east of Roswell Road.
“It’s inconsequential,” McEnerny said. “I think it’s just a fair representation of the increase in population that District 5 and 6 had.”
To see more details about how the new maps compare with the old maps, click here.