The Appleton Redistricting Committee is meeting 10/11/2021 at 3:45PM.
They will be voting on a final map to recommend to the Common Council. During the previous Redistricting Committee meeting the committee narrowed down the preferred map to Option A. This was the map that most closely aligned to the current district lines. It also was the only map that didn’t result in any currently serving alderpersons being drawn out of their districts. [Although that is not a consideration that goes in to drawing district lines, it’s something that I expect that is at least in the back of alderpersons’ minds; it certainly was something I, as a member of the public, was interested in.]
After narrowing down what option the committee preferred, city staff took down the various concerns the alderpersons had and the changes they would like to see. Staff has now come back with a new draft of Option A with changes made where possible to align with the requests from the alderpersons.
City staff has also come out with an Option D which seems to borrow in part from Option A but makes some more extensive changes than just the ones suggested by the alderpersons during the last committee meeting. Option D completely moves the location of District 11.
[As I scrolled through the agenda packet I was not expecting to see a fourth option. My initial reaction was it looked really good and they nailed the compactness and contiguity requirements better than with Option A. However, the more I look at it the more I’m not sure that’s true. District 5 seems more spread out, and I’m not sure that having Districts 9 and 2 cross the river in Option D is any better than having Districts 11 and 4 cross the river in Option A. I do like District 6 a lot better in Option D. And I think they did a little better of a job keeping the populations of the various districts closer to the 4,967 ideal population number they were aiming for in Option D. In Option A the greatest population was 5,338 in District 12 and the smallest population was 4,645 in District 11. In Option D the greatest population is 5,250 in District 6 and the smallest is 4,769 in District 11. So, instead of having a difference of 693 between the largest and smallest districts in Option A, there would only be a 481 difference in Option D. As noted on the maps, the total population deviation in Option A is 13.7% vs 9.5% in Option D. We will have to wait and see what the committee decides.]
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=896421&GUID=2B1C7872-0C37-43E9-8753-B7F0D9A216F6
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