Redistrict Options to be Presented to City Leaders

In a work session tonight, the Fredericksburg City Council will get its first glimpse at three proposals which would redraw the city's political wards. By law, city leaders must update the ward boundaries every 10 years after the federal census to equalize as much as possible the populations of the wards. 

Fredericksburg Patch will be live tweeting from the work session and the regular session. The work session starts at 5:30 p.m. in the conference room on the top floor of . The regular session begins at 7:30 p.m. Follow along on twitter here.

The agendas for both meetings

Following dramatic growth over the last decade, Ward 1's population grew by roughly 3,530 over the last 10 years, rising to a total of 8,310 residents according to Census 2010 data. Ward 1's growth rate dwarfs the rest of the city, with Ward 4 growing by 28 percent to 5,390 residents, Ward 2 growing by 4 percent to 5,085 residents, and Ward 3 growing the least, 1.6 percent, to 5,494 residents. Fredericksburg's total population grew by 26 percent over the last 10 years, up from 19,280 to 24,290. 

Federal and state voting regulations require that the city's population be split among the wards as equally as possible. By law, the populations of the redrawn wards cannot deviate more than plus or minus five percent. In an ideal world, this would mean that the new wards would be split equally with 6,070 residents each.

To achieve such parity, Ward 1 would have to lose 37 percent of its population, roughly 2,250 people. Those residents would then be split among the remaining wards. Ward 2 needs to grow by 16.2 percent, Ward 3 needs to grow by 9.5 percent, and Ward 4 needs to grow by 11.2 percent to achieve legal population equality. 

Article 8 of the Virginia Constitution requires local governments to redistrict if they elect local officials from legislative districts or wards. The redistricting process is tied into the decennial federal census, which counted residents who lived in the city of Fredericksburg on April 1, 2010. This count includes college students living in dormitories at Mary Washington University, as well as homeless people living in makeshift shelters throughout the city. 

The wards will be required to be as compact and contiguous as possible, deliniated by clearly defined boundaries, and avoid splitting wards between state and congressional legislative districts, and to avoid splitting neighborhoods, again, if possible.

Race also has played a role in the redistricting process. The new redistricting plans will be required, within the limits of practicality, to maintain Fredericksburg's majority-minority voting district, Ward 4. 

Census 2010 data shows that Fredericksburg's Hispanic population grew faster than any other race or ethnic group in the city over the last 10 years.  Fredericksburg's 2,600 Hispanics now account for 11 percent of the city's population, a 176 percent increase over the last 10 years. In that time, the city's black population grew 38 percent and the city's white population grew 7 percent. Whites still make up the dominant racial group in the city at 61 percent, while blacks account for 22 percent of the population.