Politics & Government

Public Hearing on New Berkeley Council District Boundaries

Berkeley's is conducting its once-a-decade redrawing of district boundaries for the eight City Council seats. The council will conduct on a public hearing at its May 7 meeting on the seven proposals received.

On May 7, Berkeley will hold the first public hearing on seven proposals to adjust the boundaries for the city's eight City Council districts.

The city is required to conduct redistricting every 10 years to adjust for shifts in population and faces a deadline of Dec. 31 this year to have approved new boundaries in place.

The city invited proposals for the new district lines and received seven by the March 15 deadline. Monday's public hearing will take place during the City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.

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After the hearing, those who submitted the proposals have until May 17 to make corrections for any technical errors identified by a staff review. One proposal, called "Idealized Plan" from Eric Panzer, violated the rule that no district can contain the residence of more than one sitting council member, according to a staff report prepared for the hearing.

The districts also have to be "nearly equal" in population, though that requirement appears to be imprecisely defined. The proposal with the greatest population variance, by Alfred Twu, ranges between 10,154 people in the smallest district to 18,120 in the largest. The staff report said its districts "are nearly equal in population." The other proposals had much less deviation from the average.

Find out what's happening in Berkeleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The staff report, which is attached to this article, contains details of the proposals. They are, in order received:

  1. Alfred Twu
  2. Berkeley Neighborhoods Council
  3. Berkeley Student District Campaign 
  4. Eric Panzer – Edge Simplicity Plan 
  5. Eric Panzer – Idealized Plan
  6. Kristin Hunziker 
  7. Alejandro Soto-Vigil – Jurisdictional Plan

A second public hearing is scheduled for July 2, with Sept. 10 set as the date for the Council to adopt a first reading of the ordinance setting the new boundaries.


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